Winter's Heart
by Smorsies
Summary: A simple potion making session takes a dark turn when Cedric tries to help his mother recover her lost ring, only to end up in the entire kingdom being cursed. It's a good thing he has Sofia who's always ready to help. Cedfia (Rated M for language, perhaps more later)
1. The potion

Wow it's been a while since I last wrote anything so this is new. Also, Sofia the first? I'm totally weird, aren't I? Oh well...

In any case, this is eventually a Cedfia fic. I have no idea when it's going to change into that. The two are already in love but this is more of an adventure fic than anything so I hope you enjoy the ride.

Also, I'm not entirely sure if there is a large enough reading crowd for this type of story or pairing so if you enjoy it, please let me know and review. Since this is new for me I want to make sure I'm not writing no one wants to read.

Enjoy!

* * *

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.

The love was difficult, but easy. And it was always changing yet stayed the same. For years they loved each other, but the love grew as they did.

It was subtle, changing over time. It wasn't always so apparent, even to the two in love. Sometimes it presented itself as a dry jab with no ill intention, and sometimes it was just a listening ear.

Sofia had been the only friend Cedric had; he wasn't sure how friendships grew, especially when they began with an 8 year old. But Sofia wasn't 8 years old anymore and the love changed. He hadn't realized it did, he wasn't paying attention. The love went from making sure that Cedric was there when she needed magic to solve a problem, or advice on what the right thing to do was (like he was a good judge of character), now it blossomed into a comfortable silence they shared in the confines of the tower as they brewed potions.

Sofia used to count on Cedric for the smallest tasks, if only to make him feel better about himself. Not as if she thought he was useless otherwise, she just liked making him feel like he was the only person who could solve the problem so maybe he would stop being so hard on himself. Cedric loved Sofia, raw and deep. There was almost nothing he wouldn't do for her and the amazing thing was, he didn't even realize how far the love ran.

People talked a lot, but no one knew the true deep rooted feelings Sofia had for the sorcerer. She always loved him, she felt. He was something constant. She could always count on the pretend annoyance when she asked for a favor and the inevitable give up that he would make way too dramatic even if everyone knew he wanted to help. There wasn't a single thing she didn't love about him. And she knew that she unabashedly loved him.

He set her in some state of comfort and simultaneously burned her skin with the desire to be close to him. Her heart raced to look at him and her body relaxed in the presence of him. She wondered if he knew...

* * *

"Mister Cedric, what are we doing today?" Sofia called, walking into his lab without any attempt at knocking. He jolted upright and hit his head, whirling around to glare at her.

"Do you think, maybe JUST ONCE, perhaps you would LEARN. TO. KNOCK?" He ground out and she had the grace to look embarrassed, he knew she didn't care as much as her face led to believe.

"I'm sorry Mister Cedric. But it's two and that's usually when I'm here." She smiled at him and he pursed his lips as he rubbed his head.

"You're more trouble than you're worth; you know that, don't you princess?" He sneered and she smiled at him, her cheeks rosy as normal.

"What are you doing?" She opted to ignore him and he glowered, but she knew he'd answer regardless.

"If you must know, I'm making a potion." He looked at her and she stared at him, waiting. He sighed dramatically. "Must you know everything?" She giggled, his insides squirmed. "I'm attempting to make a locator potion."

"What are you trying to locate?" Sofia asked, sitting on a stool next to where he stood. "Maybe I can help you look." He scoffed.

"I'm looking for a better apprentice." He deadpanned and she smiled at him, despite him.

"I know you care deep down, Mister Cedric. You don't have to pretend." She kicked swayed on the stool, for a moment the Amulet of Avelor caught his eye. He could've sworn it twinkled. He looked in her eyes and back to the potion.

"It isn't for me, if you must know." He said with mock indifference. "I'm making it for my mother."

"What is she looking for?" Sofia quipped and he shrugged.

"To hell if I know..." He murmured and Sofia perked her brow at the slight swear. Not that she minded it, she liked that he was comfortable enough around her that his filter was slightly skewed. Sometimes he caught himself and apologized, but this time he took great concentration in stirring the potion in front of him.

She stared at his lips as they silently counted. She felt herself be almost hypnotized by it. Her eyes trailed down to his hands as he very cautiously stirred the potion. She felt like he would be a good pianist but never actually brought that up to him. She liked grazing his skin over with her eyes, noticing all of the imperfections that came with being a sorcerer. The burns, the scars, and callouses. She wondered where each of them came from.

After a few moments he put the wooden spoon down by the base of the cauldron and gave her his full attention. She stared at him expectantly and he rolled his eyes for the nth time.

"After stirring it for 46 times clockwise, and 38 times counter-clockwise in slow increments of two, the potion must simmer for 3 and a half hours." The one thing that always amazed Sofia about him making potions was the patience it took to do so.

"You're so good at this." She praised, secretly loving the way he flushed at the compliment and tried to cover it up with indignancy.

"I am the Royal Sorcerer and that title does not come with mediocrity." Sofia just shook her head at him fondly and stood up to peer into the cauldron. The potion looked creamy to the touch and shone like opal.

"Do you think you can show me how to make a different potion while we wait?" She asked softly and stared up at him, he was entranced by her blue eyes. Even at 17 she had an air of innocence that he couldn't fathom could be around him without being tainted.

"Of course," He said quietly, surprised by the softness of his own voice, but for a moment he couldn't look away from her stare. His insides lurched and he quickly looked away and opened his book. "W-was there a particular potion?"

"No. I just want you to teach me something new." She walked over to stand next to him to gaze into the book as well. Her height reached his shoulders; he was impressively tall even to her now. Warmth took over her as she stood close by him. He froze, hoping she didn't notice how stiff he stood with her so close to him.

"Infirmum autem in corde suo." Sofia read in slightly botched Latin. "What's that? It looks kind of difficult. Can we make that one?"

"It means..." His voice died in his throat, he had to cough to get it working again. "It means weakness of the heart. It's a very advanced potion..." He frowned at the ingredient list. He had everything for it. He'd never made this potion before, he wasn't even sure he remembered it being in this particular book.

"What does it do?" Sofia asked and Cedric gazed over the Latin scrawl next to the picture.

"I-I'm actually... not entirely sure. It just says... dolor est infirmitate. Pain is weakness. Quod est amoris. With that is love." That was interesting. A potion that didn't outright say what it did.

"Are you able to tell what it does by the ingredients?" Sofia inquired and his eyes scanned the list.

"Curious..." He mumbled. "Most of these are commonly used in... In love potions. Clove, hibiscus, black cohosh... But some of these are used in pain relieving potions like the skullcap. But honestly all of these ingredients are all over the place, I have no idea what the end result could be." His brow furrowed in concentration.

"Can we give it a go?" Sofia asked after mulling it over for a moment. "And if we make it, we could see what it does." Cedric scanned the cover of his potions book. "What are you doing?"

"I'm checking to see if this book would have any unsavory potions in it. But this book seems to be okay. These potions are all linked to uncovering what was lost in some way. I just don't see..." His voice trailed off and he opened the book to the page and read it a few more times, mumbling to himself. He sat down and his stare was intense. "I don't see how... how this potion fits into it."

"So what's the plan, Mister Cedric?" Cedric glanced up and stared at Sofia for a few seconds.

"Let's make it, I suppose. But," He said sharply, "if anything goes wrong, this was your idea."

"Yes yes, of course." She agreed lightly and took possession of the book, glancing at everything needed and walking to his stores to get it.

* * *

"Princess!" Cedric said sharply and Sofia looked up confused. "It says brunoise, not macedoine!" Sofia frowned at him. "Don't look at me like that. You're cutting too large. If it isn't exact then you don't know how the potion will react!" He scolded and Sofia sighed and looked back at her cuts and started to cut them smaller. "And don't mince! Brunoise!"

"I heard you, Mister Cedric." She mumbled and tried to concentrate on cutting correctly.

After she was done cutting everything the way it needed to be, Cedric inspected it and they re-read the recipe of the potion.

"You have dragon tears?" Sofia asked curiously and he stared at her blankly.

"Yes, who doesn't have dragon tears?" She shrugged and seemed pretty impressed with it calling for as much dragon tears as it did. It was the base of the potion, followed by a very poisonous mushroom, boiled for several minutes.

"Mister Cedric, isn't this mushroom lethal?" Sofia asked quietly as they watched the sparkly hues of the dragon tears seem to pull apart the soft exterior of the mushroom.

"It is, however the dragon tears have a stabilizing component in them to make the negative effects of the mushroom null. That's why we're boiling it down, it will become a paste. Once the mushroom reaches a certain temperature with the magical properties of the dragon tears, the molecular structure of the mushroom alters into something mimicking the effects of the magical Lilium silver Scheherazade, which I'm guessing it was easier to find this mushroom when this potion was created than to find the flower." Sofia stared at Cedric in mild awe. There was just something amazing about him when he spewed magical facts, it was... dare she say, attractive? The clear knowledge he harnessed of things she only had a slight grasp of.

Cedric turned his head to look at Sofia, his cheeks slightly darkened by the look on her face. It was flattering to see the princess stare at him as if he held the world in his palm.

Their gaze was interrupted by a high pitched

"Ceddy-kins!" And Cedric stood up quickly, looking flustered. His mother walked through the mirror he had propped against the wall. She saw Sofia and cooed. "Oh Ceddy-kins, am I interrupting something?"

"N-no mother." He stuttered quickly and she raised her eyebrow.

"Mister Cedric and I are making a potion!" She supplied happily and Winifred smiled at her and pat her shoulder affectionately.

"Oh of course you are." She looked up at Cedric. "Were you able to finish the potion I asked about?" Cedric gestured the boiling cauldron and she grinned at him. "Oh thank you, dear Ceddy-kins. I don't know what I would do without you!" She threw her arms around him.

"Mummy, why are you here? I told you it would be brought to you when it was ready." Cedric asked, amazingly not a hint of annoyance detected by his mother.

"Well..." She sat down. "What I need help finding is my wedding ring, dear. Your father needs it for a spell, but I can't find it and he doesn't know it's missing so I quickly left before he had a chance to ask about it."

"Why don't you just tell him you lost it but you're going to find it soon?" Sofia asked curiously and Winifred perked her brow at her.

"As simple as that answer may seem to you—"

"Mummy's ring is an heirloom from my father's family, it is very powerful and he probably wouldn't like it too much to know it's missing. How did you misplace it anyway?"

"Oh Ceddy, do you think if I knew I would ask for the potion?" Cedric supposed not and looked at his hour glass. He's flipped it twice so they only have another hour or so before the next stage of the potion.

"Well mother, it should be done in about two hours." She sighed and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you dear. I'm going to go, there's other ways I can be avoiding your father. I'll _see you soon!" With that she was gone._

"Sorry about her." Cedric said flatly and turned his attention to the second cauldron. Sofia swatted her hand at him and they both gazed into the cauldron.

"Oh! It's turning into a paste now Mister Cedric!" She said excitedly and he nodded.

"Now you stir it twice in a circle, finish by dragging it diagonally through the mixture and then add the" He stared at her " _brunoise_ cut of ginger." She giggled at him and dumped in the slightly matted down lump of ginger. As he read the instructions he stirred enough to distribute the ginger and frowned.

"Well I suppose now we wait for the potion to turn green."

* * *

Their potion was done before the one for Winifred and they stared at the end product in the cauldron. It was a deep sparkling red color, rivaling to rubies. Sofia smiled at it.

"Is that how it's supposed to look, Mister Cedric?" She asked and he read over the instructions for the seemingly thousandth time that hour.

"It doesn't say..." That irritated him but he supposed it was ok.

"Maybe your mom can tell us what it does." Sofia offered and they both continued to stare at the potion as if it were going to do something amazing. It didn't. It continued to sparkle as if it had reflective surfaces in the sun. "It's so pretty." Sofia giggled.

Cedric dipped his pinky finger in the potion and noticed how it coated his fingers like slime, only to seep into his skin and disappear.

"With a name like Weakness of the Heart, I don't think it's supposed to be very pretty... In any case, the potion seems to be a success, congratulations Princess, you may go." She looked at him in disbelief.

"No. You can't kick me out before we find out what it does! I put all that effort into it!" He sighed at her stubbornness.

"Very well. But please sit tight, I have to finish this potion." He walked away from her into his stores to get the final ingredient for the locator potion.

* * *

"Mummy." Cedric called after he handed Winifred the small tube of the potion. "Are you familiar with the potion Infirmum autem in corde suo?" Winifred smiled fondly.

"Is that the potion you made with the princess? How lovely. I'm glad to hear that. I hope it turns out well." Cedric's pulse quickened. Was it something inappropriate that he did? Merlin's Mushrooms! He could be in so much trouble.

However, before he could make an inquiry, Winifred put a drop of the potion on her hand, whispering an incantation and letting it drip to the map below. The liquid moved around on the paper until it settled on a destination and burned through the paper and dissipated.

"Ce..." Winifred's voice died on her lips and she gaped at the map. Cedric walked over and looked down at the map, for a moment his blood ran cold.

Malignant Falls.

"M-mummy... How did your ring get there?" His heart thudded in his chest.

"Cedric... Mummy's not... Feeling too well..." When Winifred sat down, her whole body turned a pale white.

"M-mummy?" He walked over to her and her skin was cold to the touch. "Mother?!" She was unresponsive, he ran into the other room where his father lain on the couch, just as white and unresponsive.

Quickly, without thinking he ran through the mirror that brought him back into his tower, and stared at Sofia who had a guilty expression on her face.

"What did you do?" He asked quickly before he could get his mind up to speed with what his body was doing.

"Nothing!" She said quickly and pursed her lips. "I just, touched the potion like you did. Are you okay Mister Cedric?" Cedric stopped moving and tried his best to pay attention to noise. Sofia went to say something and he stopped her with his hand and ran to the door and threw it open and took off down the stairs with Sofia following shortly behind him.

Cedric knew something was wrong, the castle seemed too quiet. There was always the slight noise that carried to his tower of someone doing something. He couldn't hear anything right now.

"Mister Cedric—"

"Sofia! Not now!" Cedric scolded and Sofia was momentarily taken aback. She recovered quickly enough and continued to run after Cedric. He stopped at the throne room and pushed the door open. Once he stared inside, his body faltered and he put all his weight on the door in defeat.

Sofia walked through the door and her eyes widened. Her parents were sitting in their thrones, completely white and unmoving.

"M-mom? Dad?" She started to panic and Cedric grabbed her arm, preventing her from going any further.

"They're fine, Sofia." He said quietly. "Just asleep."

"B-but... what..." She looked around the room, everyone was the same, there were servants on the floor, things were dropped, the room was a mess. "What happened?"

"I can't be too sure..." Cedric said carefully. "But if I had to guess, this has to be related to my mother's missing ring." He said in defeat.

"But... How?" He looked pained.

"It was a very powerful ring. So powerful I was unable to have it. My father didn't trust me. Much like your amulet, it has properties that can be corrupted." Sofia looked at him in shock. "Don't look at me like that. I know all about the Amulet. I have for years. And I know in the wrong hands the amulet can be corrupted. Just like the ring. My mother had a wicked side, no doubt. However nothing compares to this. She isn't bad enough to put..." He swallowed hard. "An entire kingdom under a curse."

"But why are we okay?" Sofia asked quietly and was put out by him sprinting away again. She sighed and followed after him.

They made it to the tower and he threw open the book and scanned the pages for the potion. When he got to the page he sat down, defeated.

"We didn't make Infirmum autem in corde suo, Sofia. That potion seems to have been ripped out." He pulled up the mostly torn out page to reveal the true name of the potion they created. "We made muniat infirmitatem cordis. Which means protect weakness of the heart. I'm not too sure but it sounds as though this is the antidote to the first potion, weakness of the heart. But somehow it may have protected us from the curse. I just wish I knew which curse was cast." He cradled his head in his hands and Sofia walked up to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"You know what we have to do, right Mister Cedric?" He looked up at her pitifully, almost begging her not to say it. "We have to save Enchancia." His pained expression was more apparent.

"I was really hoping you wouldn't say that..." He suddenly wished that he, too, was under the curse.

* * *

Like I said, if this is something that interests you, let me know! If I don't have readers I'm just going to stop writing, I don't want to write without an audience so kindly leave a review!


	2. The adventure begins

Wow, thank you to the people who reviewed. It meant a lot to me that you did that!

I'm glad people seem to find this interesting. I can't wait to actually get to the meat part of the story.

There's going to be quite a few filler chapters of them getting to where they need to be. I'm debating on if they should admit their feelings before or after they get there. What do y'all think?

* * *

 **Chapter two:**

Sofia was the tensest he'd ever seen her. Her shoulders were tight against her frame and she had a look of panic on her face. Even with that, she remained poised in her speaking voice.

"Mister Cedric," the way she composed the beginning of the sentence made it seem like she was completely in control. If only he didn't know better, her face made it painfully clear. "I'm going to go to my room and get dressed. After that I think we should talk about what we're going to do. We'll meet in the foyer in a half an hour."

"Princess, I don't think-" She stopped him with a look. "Please, you need to think about this." He pleaded softly. She shook her head.

"Thirty minutes, Mister Cedric." She repeated and was on her way to her room.

Cedric stood in defeat, watching her walk away knowing that they were going to do something very stupid and even more so, very dangerous. He knew, however, that there was no reasoning with her. He supposed that she was right after all. If everyone was in this enchanted sleep, how else would they wake up if not for Sofia and him? They were literally the only hope they had.

He mulled over the possibility of the span the curse hit. He wondered if it hit neighboring kingdoms or if it was just Enchancia.

"I guess I'll find out soon..."

* * *

When Cedric walked into the foyer, his eyes cast down to Sofia. A warmth spread across his chest, as it did every time he set eyes on her. She was wearing her riding gear. That was smart, no need to get tangled up in this mess wearing a dress. He also noticed she had a bow and quiver on her back. He never even knew she could shoot arrows. The thought was exciting somehow. There was still more to learn about the princess who stole his heart and continued to keep him there.

"I don't recall shooting a bow and arrow as part of the princess curriculum." Cedric pointed out and he got a smile, which was enough for him.

"I learned from Carol the arrow when we were out doing good deeds. Mom and dad let me get it. Even they knew I wasn't going to stand for the standard princess hobbies." Cedric briefly recalled her being the first girl on the Royal Prep's flying Derby team. "Anyway, I know you're a sorcerer, but did you want to wear that robe?"

Cedric looked down and considered it for a moment. He could always conjure up another if he needed it. Still, he didn't like the feeling of not having his robes.

"I think I will be fine, Princess." He decided and she frowned at him. He felt a stabbing pain of disappointment in her look.

"Sofia." She corrected and walked up to him, frown deeper. "Please, just call me Sofia." Her eyes were glassy and in that moment he thought about how it might feel to be her. Sure his parents were under the same curse but she was just a girl. No, woman. And a beautiful one at that. She currently had none of her family, no one to call her just Sofia. And without even asking why, he knew.

"Okay, Sofia." She gave him a watery smile and slowly walked close enough to him and embraced him. "I'm here, Sofia. We'll wake them up."

"I'm just... so scared." He rubbed her back soothingly. He couldn't even relish in the moment of holding her. He just wanted her to feel better. But he wasn't too sure he could make her feel safe, he wasn't strong enough to do that. Cedric glanced down at the top of Sofia's head. He noticed she wasn't wearing her tiara. Probably for the best.

"I am too." He said without thinking, then cursed to himself for being so honest. She should have some form of support! Not this... whatever he's doing. She pulled away from him and looked at him with her big blue eyes. She smiled.

* * *

Before leaving, Sofia insisted on grabbing some food to bring with them on their journey. She packed an entire bag up of dehydrated meat and more resistant fruits that wouldn't wither away in a few days.

"I could always conjure up food, you know." Cedric reasoned and Sofia frowned at him.

"That isn't a very smart way of thinking. What if you lose your wand? What if we get separated? What if—" He held up his hand.

"Alright, I understand your point. I just figured we should travel lightly since we don't have any form of transportation being how everything is asleep." He rubbed his temples and Sofia ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.

"I completely forgot... Can you transport us there with magic?" Cedric scoffed.

"You cannot be serious right now. Not only is Malignant Falls warded to prevent magical entry, but when you use a large amount of magic, you create a sort of beacon for other magical beings. They'd know we were there in an instant. There would go the element of surprise." Sofia thought for a moment.

"Mister Cedric do you know exactly where we're going?" Cedric sat Sofia down at the table and sat down next to her.

"Malignant Falls is one of the most dangerous places in this land. It has very dark creatures. Beings that used to be human but mutated with all of the dark magic they were consumed by. Truly evil entities. On the way there, I'm going to need to tell you how to kill each and every one of these in order to protect you if you run into them without me being present." Sofia didn't look too enthused but nodded all the same. Cedric took her hands into his. "Sofia, I know you love to look at the best in everyone but I mean this very _very_ seriously. These creatures _can_ and _will_ kill you. There is no reasoning behind it, it's just what they do. You cannot hesitate. You must kill them on site."

"Okay Mister Cedric. I understand." She still didn't look too happy about it.

"My name is Cedric." He corrected and she tried to stifle a smile but couldn't. "See? Two can play at that game."

"Okay _Cedric_. What more do we need?"

"Do you have your wand?" Sofia grinned and pulled it out from her boot. "Very good, coming prepared. I brought with me several potions in case we ran into any problems. And if there was ever a time to put complete and utter faith in me, now would be that time." Cedric rose up and Sofia followed suit.

"Cedric, I've always had complete and utter faith in you." She said softly and he didn't want to think about how that melted his heart.

"...Very well." He said stiffly and quickly made his exit. This was going to be difficult. He didn't know how he would be able to protect his princess. Maybe he was Cedric the So-so.

* * *

Cedric wound up transporting them a good portion of the way there, using a few miles as a cut off from the starting point of Malignant falls.

"Once we cross over, you will notice, I promise, you are going to feel very weak. You may even be tempted by the darkness. If that is the case you're going to get angry and you won't know why. Or sad and be inconsolable. The darkness works in different ways on different people. You need to let me know the second you feel any negative emotions, do you got that?" Sofia nodded.

"Now, when we get to the location of Malignant Falls, we will still be in the forest. It won't look different than what we're in now. It will feel different though. From there we have to go through a trail in-between the two biggest mountains, its named Suicide Pact. You don't want to know why. Passed that is the cave, the cave of souls, also you really don't want to know... Actually just assume you want to know nothing about Malignant Falls."

Sofia listened intently to Cedric explain everything they had to do up until the point of where they were headed exactly. For the first time that trip, Cedric pulled a map out of his pocket and Sofia noticed the burned hole in the area of Malignant Falls.

"This is where we need to go."

"What's there?" Sofia asked and Cedric gave her a hard look.

"Lover's lake." He said gravely.

"That doesn't sound like much of an evil name." Sofia said suspiciously and Cedric gave her a dry laugh.

"The story of Lover's Lake is... actually about a princess. She fell in love with someone who wasn't royal and her parents married her off to a prince. The prince was constantly being unloyal and had several mistresses, some even had children, not that he would admit to it. Well, she didn't like that so her and her lover would meet for... rendezvous. The prince was not very nice and one day he caught them by the lake. He drowned the lover and took the princess back to the castle where he continued to be very... unkind to her. One day she managed to sneak out. She was with child and she decided she didn't want that life anymore. So she went to the lake and drowned herself to be with her true love. It's said that in death she was not united with her lover and she grew angry and in her rage her spirit became a siren where she led men to their deaths.

"Since then, whenever couples go to Lover's Lake she tries to kill the men, but only if they prove to be unfaithful or abusive to their partner in any way. If you pass you're able to cross the lake peacefully and to the tomb which no one knows what it leads to. There are several guesses but no one knows for sure."

"That is so sad... wait, how does she know if couples weren't faithful to each other? Is she omniscient?"

"She... she transforms into the person your heart desires the most. And if she can do that and seduce you, she can talk you into whatever, including walking into the lake until you can't reach the bottom and stay there."

"Does... she only do that to the men?" Sofia's cheeks turned a light pink at the thought of being right next to Cedric and then her turning into Cedric.

"Yes. She couldn't care less if the women were having an affair, or even several."

"What if she were reunited with her love?" Sofia offered lightly and Cedric stopped dead in his tracks and gave her a look.

"Don't you dare." Sofia looked innocently at him. "No. Don't you try to solve this. There is no solving it. No one knows where the prince put her lover's body. We aren't putting a malevolent spirit to rest right now. We have a kingdom to save." Sofia raised an eyebrow but said nothing more on the matter.

* * *

A few hours into the walk and the sun was already starting to go down. Cedric pulled out his wand and murmured an incantation and sighed in relief.

"Well it would seem we're still far enough away that we could safely stop somewhere for the night. Let's collect some wood to burn and after I'll put up some wards so we can sleep peacefully."

The pair quickly walked around the surrounding areas to get enough wood for a small fire. Cedric was able to make the wood last longer by casting an enchantment, however they still needed something to actually be on fire.

Once they were settled in, Cedric walked around the small clearing with his wand out, making crosses in the air and marking the ground beneath him so each point led to another and they were boxed in. He started the fire, no longer worrying that it would cause unwanted attention and noticed Sofia was just staring into the fire, apple in her lap untouched.

"Are you alright?" Cedric hated the softness of his voice he seemed to have whenever the princess was downtrodden. He could only keep up his snarky personality for so long, especially when those rosy cheeks seemed to not hold color.

"I'll be okay. Don't worry about me." She insisted and sat up straight before eventually curling in on herself.

Cedric didn't want to press the issue and nibbled on some of the dehydrated meat Sofia brought along for him. He knew she didn't eat meat anymore. She stopped around the same time she got the amulet. He was surprised he'd even remembered that fact about her.

When Cedric noticed that she wasn't going to eat, he quickly summoned two tents for them. Sofia gave him a grateful look and bid him goodnight and retreated back into the tent where he hoped he'd made it soft enough for her to sleep well.

The night sky was almost overwhelming. The lights seemed brighter when there weren't any interruptions from the kingdom. The stars even seemed bigger.

Eventually, Cedric decided to retire for the night as well and ducked into his tent. Sofia's was just a few feet away from his, but still she felt far to him. He wondered if he could sleep with all of the worries on his mind.

He thought of everything as he laid there. The look on his mother's face. This impossible seeming task they had to do. Sofia's smile. Sofia's look of devastation when she saw her family. And eventually he just thought about Sofia.

He thought about how lovely she was, even in difficult times. She wouldn't get angry or shout. She always tried to be level headed. Cedric remembered being there as she grew up, he tried to hate her as he hated everyone else. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Sofia was someone he could always count on to be there. He didn't know what he would do if she didn't touch the potion and fell under the spell. What would he have done if he had to do this all without Sofia?

Cedric didn't know what he did to deserve someone like Sofia in his life, even if it were only to be his friend. His only friend. He wasn't a brave fellow, but she made him want to try. And somehow he knew that in the end, he was going to be doing a lot more than he thought he would.

His thoughts were interrupted by a shuffling noise from Sofia's tent. His ears listened closer, figuring she might've had to pee or something but he saw light illuminate his tent and when he glanced up, Sofia was poking her head in.

"What do you want, you are disturbing me of my beauty rest." He halfheartedly scolded. She smiled nervously.

"I'm sorry, I know this is... terribly inappropriate but... I can't sleep. I'm just so worried. Do you mind if I... were to... sleep here?" Cedric's eyes widened as he thought about the question. It wasn't as though they were going to elope or anything, she was right with it being inappropriate though! If her parents were to find out he would surely be hanged! "Never mind. It's okay. I can just—"

"Get over here you annoying child!" Cedric's tone made the look of worry on Sofia's face melt away into a smile. She ducked out and came back with the blankets she had in her tent. The tents weren't very big so he felt her warmth against him as she struggled to get comfortable. But having her so close to him heightened his senses at the same time as calming down his body. He felt like he could sleep. And thinking about it, he could charm the tent to be bigger but the selfish part of him decided not to.

And it certainly didn't have anything to do with being back to back with the princess.

* * *

As I said at the beginning, what would y'all like to happen? Should they admit their feelings before they get there or after the adventure?


	3. Malignant Falls-the Forest

Chapter three already! Yay! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and absolutely made my day. I love to hear from people, especially feedback.

I'm trying to stretch this story out enough so you can get a feel for how they're feeling and when so we won't get to Lover's Lake for a good while. They don't even get out of the forest in this chapter so if you're reading this story, you're going to be here for a bit lol

Again thank you readers and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter three:**

The following morning Sofia was able to eat an apple without a problem. She had a look of content on her face as Cedric scanned over the map trying to figure out where exactly they were. She peeled an orange and split it in half and he absentmindedly took the other half, peeling it apart and eating it without much thought.

She did the same with an apple. Cedric took it without paying attention and started to eat it. And she passed him some berries and he just ate them. Her smile hurt her cheeks as she kept passing him food and he took it without much thought. She didn't know why it was so humorous but it just made her feel warm inside.

Finally, he looked up and stared at Sofia as she tried to pass off more fruit. He turned pink.

"You don't have to _feed_ me, girl. I am more than capable of eating by myself." He was pretty sure no amount of his normal scathing self would wipe the grin off of her face. He just sighed and stood up, making everything disappear that he conjured.

"Thank you for last night, Cedric." Sofia said very sweetly. He was positive his face couldn't be more red if he tried. For whatever reason the thanks she gave him made him feel like he'd done something... perverted the night before. Who says _thanks for last night_ anyway?

"Yes yes, if only there were more people like me in the world." He took the wards down as Sofia packed up her bag and hoisted it over her shoulders. Cedric paused and walked behind Sofia. "Hold still." He opened her bag and replenished their supply. "Can't eat all of the food without backup."

After Cedric was sure he knew the direction, they headed off into the forest. Once setting a comfortable rhythm, he began to tell Sofia what creatures they would be facing and how to kill them. She still seemed uneasy about killing something else but if they were as dangerous as he explained, she decided that she needed to be okay with it to save them.

"Sofia." Cedric said sharply and her head jerked in his direction. "How do you kill... a wendigo?" She thought for a moment. "You need to know this quickly, you won't get the chance to think long if we come across one."

"You set it on fire." She said quietly. "Cedric, how will we do that?"

"Don't forget silver works if you pierce their heart. But that only slows them down. If you're able to slow them down with your arrows I can use the spell _Igne Furoris_ and be done with it. Now, speaking of your arrows, let me see one." Sofia reached behind her and pulled an arrow from her quiver. "Unfortunate." He stopped. "Dump out your quiver." She unclipped the quiver and poured it in front of them. Cedric pointed his wand at the small pile and mumbled an "Ad argentum" and they turned to pure silver.

"That's amazing! I thought that was only something you could do with alchemy." Sofia gushed and picked one up.

"Luckily for you I know much about alchemy. However, this isn't a permanent spell. It should do the trick though." He helped Sofia pack up her quiver and he thought for a moment and before letting her put it back on he tapped it with his wand. "Perpetua implete." Her quiver illuminated a faint green light. "It should make it so you don't run out of arrows."

"Thank you so much, Cedric." She smiled happily at him and clipped the quiver to her back, maneuvering the bag she was holding. He wasn't sure how she managed to do that before but the trouble she was having with it now was pretty comical to watch.

"We don't have all day, princess." She glared at him and he tried to hold his smile. He enjoyed teasing her. "We could've saved the kingdom by now..."

"If you're so impatient why don't you hold the bag." She thrust it in his direction and any sounds of protest went unsaid with the pout she gave him.

"Bratty princess and their annoying tendencies..." He mumbled as he snatched the bag. It was Sofia's turn to smile.

* * *

"Rugaru?" Cedric asked after several minutes of a comfortable silence as they walked further into the forest.

"There's a special knife that kills it but we don't have that so it's unhelpful. Also fire." Sofia said quickly and the giddiness Cedric felt at the knowledge that the princess had been paying attention to him was extraordinary. Sofia noticed the smile on his face and that in turn gave her butterflies.

"At least you were paying attention to _something_ I said." Cedric managed to scoff and Sofia shook her head at him. "Banshee."

"Um... bronze knife?"

"No you're thinking of Sirens. You kill Banshees with gold or iron... Sofia have you ever tried to use your amulet?" He asked suddenly and she looked at him confused. "The amulet gives you... powers of sorts. Has it ever given you a weapon?"

"Um... no. I never needed one though. But it lets me get small if I ask and sometimes it lets me shapeshift." This was news to Cedric. He knew the amulet had powers beyond his comprehension but this was amazing.

"Can you try to ask?"

"Okay..." She held the amulet in her hands. "Can a pretty please have a bronze knife?" She held out her hand and after a moment there was a collection of sparkling dust that materialized into the knife.

"Glorious..." Cedric whispered to himself and Sofia smiled proudly.

"Can you please take the knife back now?" She asked the amulet and the knife disappeared as quickly as it came. "That was very impressive thinking." She praised and Cedric cleared his throat trying to get rid of the blush that stained his cheeks.

"Shtriga." Cedric said quickly, trying to change the subject but also very much liking praise.

"Oh, iron. But it has to be feeding..." She trailed off and looked horrified. "What happens if we get separated and I-" Cedric put his hand on her shoulder and she stopped mid-sentence.

"Sofia. Honestly I'm freaking out too. But I can swear to you that unless I'm dying and cannot move or I'm already dead, I will not allow myself to be separated from you." Sofia stared at him, amazed. Her face reddened and the only thing Cedric could do was curse himself for saying something so... gushy to her.

"Thank you, Cedric." She buried her face in his chest and after a moment of being surprised, he embraced her back.

* * *

"It has to be stabbed in the heart—" Sofia suddenly stopped talking like she was completely frozen in her tracks. She felt as though all the air was taken from her lungs and she couldn't breathe. There was an impending feeling of dread that sunk her down, even making her shoulders sag.

"Welcome to Malignant Falls." She looked around curiously. It didn't look any different. She thought once they passed the border between the two lands, it would... look dark and dead or something. She didn't expect it to look just as green and vibrant.

She suddenly got a gut wrenching feeling of sadness and covered her mouth to hide the hiccupping sound of sobs.

"Sofia, you can't let it get to you. I know it's hard." Cedric rubbed her shoulder and she sobbed even harder. He shouldn't have spoken so soon, it wasn't long before he began to feel the effects of the notoriously evil land.

"W-why are you f-fine?" She covered her face and he frowned. He wasn't fine, he had a fire in the pit of his stomach that seemed to burn as the moments passed by.

"It affects people differently. Since you're so pure it makes you sad." He explained shortly and had to close his eyes and breathe heavily to stop himself from snapping. He was getting _so incredibly angry_. His heart hammered in his chest and he kept clenching and unclenching his hands and he was grinding his teeth in a fashion that was entirely unhealthy.

"W-w-what happen-s..." She couldn't finish her sentence but he knew what she was asking. What would a person who was not pure?

She wiped her eyes and looked up at Cedric. She could tell he was angry. But it was terrifying with how angry he looked. His eyes were darker than normal. He had a few strands of hair sticking up with blue static shocks running through it like he was emanating electricity. His lips were pressed in a tight firm line and he was breathing heavily. She noticed the small bolts of electricity didn't end at his hair, it was sparking from his hands as well. She'd never seen him that way. That powerful.

"Get the purple potion from your bag insolent fool!" He barked and she shuttered, trying not to cry again.

"You're holding it! Stop yelling at me!" She said hysterically, and covered her mouth muffling the heavy crying. The sadness was deep in her bones, like a feeling you got if you witnessed a terrible loss. The only thing she could compare it to was when her father died when she was young. She ached everywhere, it hurt to move. She just felt the sadness so profoundly she couldn't handle herself.

"I wouldn't have to yell at you if you had a damned brain! For the love of Hades, I don't understand what about you makes everyone so frazzled! You're just a spoiled princess!" He growled and ripped it off his back and dumped everything on the ground of the forest.

Sofia felt her heart break further. As if someone clenched her heart in their hands and squeezed it so it was harder to breathe. She could even feel the irregular heart beat from the aching pain. All she wanted was Cedric to care for her and he couldn't even do that. She never asked for this life. She wished she was still living in the village with her mother and never had to deal with being a princess, or the duties and everything that came with being royalty. He didn't understand! She just wanted him. She wanted him so bad and he didn't even seem to care about her feelings.

"I never asked to be a princess! Why are you so cruel?" Sofia yelled and shoved him to the ground. "I just want you to like me! You're always so mean to me. Stop being mean!"

He snarled at her and grabbed her arm and yanked her to the ground and pinned her there. He leaned in so close their noses were almost touching. Her lower chin wobbled and tears streamed down the sides of her face.

"I'd never like someone like you." He spat and pushed himself up. Sofia couldn't take it anymore. She hated the anger. She wanted it gone. She wanted to scratch herself all over her skin because suddenly it was just too much weight. She wanted to be weightless. She wanted to be dead. The pain was so deep she needed to dig it out with her own nails.

He found the potion he was looking for. He quickly yanked off the cork and drank half of it greedily and then thrust it to Sofia. She grabbed it with shaky hands and finished it off.

Both knelt on the ground in silence for a while, letting the potion take effect and suddenly they were in control of their emotions again. Sofia looked at Cedric in slight disbelief.

"Princess Sofia I do apolo—" She shook her head at him.

"No." She said quietly.

"I wasn't in control of myself. I didn't realize what I was doing." He explained, and even to his own ears it sounded like a cop out. "Please, I didn't mean anything I said."

"Well, I did." She answered finally. "I just want you to like me. And I don't know why you're so mean to me. So why would it make me tell the truth and you lie?" He sighed and sat down across from Sofia.

"Princess, you're one of the purest people I know. Malignant Falls just proved that. You were sad and when someone is sad they say what they're feeling. I'm sure you know this but I'm... I'm not pure. I'm an angry sod and I don't know how you deal with that on a regular basis but you do. I'm tipping towards evil on the scale if I had to admit. I've done things I'm not proud of. But if you were to ever believe I say things I mean when I'm angry... well then, maybe you are an insolent fool." He gave her a weak smile and she stared at him in the eyes. His eyes lightened in color to the shade she'd fallen in love with. How could he think himself evil?

"You aren't evil-"

"-yes I am-"

"-No. You're not. Mister Cedric, you are angry and you can be mean but you aren't evil. There has been so many times where you could've been evil to me and at most you've shown me forced contempt. You're good, you just don't want to admit it. Maybe you have done things you aren't proud of but that's okay. You can make mistakes. What's important is who you are now."

Cedric drank in her appearance. Even with tear stained cheeks, bloodshot eyes and messy hair she was still more beautiful than anyone he'd ever known. Her eyes were lighter than normal, he wondered if that it just looked that way in contrast to the redness of her eyes now. With the light behind her and her hair tousled, it illuminated the stray pieces to almost resemble a halo. He wanted to pull her into him and whisper comforting words but he wasn't sure if that was the right time. If Cedric were being honest with himself, he didn't think there would ever be a right time. She was too perfect for him. He didn't think he could tether her to him, she deserved the moon and the stars in the sky. All he could offer was... himself.

"Come on let's go." Sofia held out her hand to hoist Cedric up and he reluctantly took it.

They walked further into the forest.

* * *

"We've been walking for a while." Sofia noticed and Cedric looked up at the sky. Based on the time of year and the sun movement they'd been walking for about 3 hours since getting into Malignant Falls. The trees were so dense it was almost impossible to see anything else. If Cedric didn't have his magic guiding them, he wasn't sure how they'd get out.

Without much notice, he saw in the distance the trees getting darker, like a cloud of blackness was blanketing the forest just up ahead. It got closer and closer. Cedric grabbed Sofia's hand and she quickly pulled out her wand and held it in a defensive position. The black fog engulfed them and it was almost impossible to see for a few minutes until everything settled down.

"Mister Cedric." Sofia said softly, but with a lot of emotion.

"Yes Princess?" He drawled.

"W...What is that?" She pointed and Cedric followed her direction and saw possibly one of the most grotesque things he'd ever seen. The humanoid figure thrust its body in a very spastic manner in their direction despite having absolutely no face, therefore no eyes to see them. It had no arms and it was so skinny it was almost as if it were made by wrapping a skeleton in plastic wrap. The skin was so thin and its bones were protruding from its body.

"Merlin's Mushrooms." Cedric inhaled sharply. "I have no bloody idea."

* * *

If anyone wants to know what creature they're facing, I got the idea from Silent Hill!

So far based on my reviews it looks like most people want their feelings to be admitted at Lover's Lake. I'm completely fine with that, it would be a cute element of surprise for Sofia.

Just warning everyone this is where the story gets very dark. Theres going to be a lot of fighting and blood.

Let me know if there is a supernatural creature you'd like to see them fight!


	4. Malignant Falls-the Forest 2

Just a quick question for y'all. Is it just me or does Cedric's voice change from the first season to now? I feel like he kind of sounded... Australian? or something before and now he sounds slightly British. My husband thinks I'm crazy. Maybe I am. He doesn't have to stay home with our daughter and watch the show over and over again though lol

enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter four:**

"Igne Furoris!" Cedric all but squeaked and a fire blast spit out from the tip of his wand and engulfed the creature. "I think that did it."

"Mister Cedric... I don't think that's going to work." Sofia said as her eyes scanned the surrounding area. More creatures were coming out to their location and they all fenced them in.

"Where are they coming from?!" Cedric raised his wand and blast a few more of them but as he hit them with magic, more seemed to appear.

"I think they're attracted to magic." Sofia concluded and put her wand back in her boot. She pulled out her bow and started letting arrows fly, not getting directly on their hearts but pretty close. The creatures thumped to the ground and it didn't seem that more were coming besides the ones already there.

Cedric panicked as he watched Sofia take them all on without any help. He didn't know how else to help her if he couldn't use his magic, that's all he was good for. She seemed to handle it well, unfortunately since she was the only one fighting them off; they were able to get closer.

Sofia managed to take down about 15 of them before she got too tired to keep shooting. Some of them required more than one arrow. She closed her eyes and prayed that her amulet didn't cause the same magical detection that Cedric's wand magic did.

"Can I please have something to help me fight these things?" She asked it and seconds later, a sword appeared in her hand. Luckily, she knew how to use it from sparing with her brother, James. She wasn't a very conventional princess.

"Take this." She unhooked her quiver, placed it by Cedric's feet, and handed him the bow.

"But I never reall-" she held up her hand.

"Just try." She grabbed her sword and swung as hard as she could, hitting one, and having the rest topple over. The use of swords were more of to hit hard with metal more than they were to slice. Most swords weren't very sharp from her kingdom. Cedric struggled to use the bow correctly and missed the first few times but eventually got the hang of it enough to hit one in the stomach.

Cedric's hands were shaking and he wasn't entirely sure how to aim the arrow so that it would hit where he needed it. He would aim for the heart and end up having the bow in front of them or even hitting their knee.

"Remember the archer's paradox!" Sofia called out while she fended off some of the creatures with the sword.

Her arms were getting tired; the sword was rather heavy. Her face covered in a thin layer of sweat and somehow it felt like these creatures were never ending. Sofia's arms burned each time she rose up the sword to slam it back down with as much force she could muster. It was a great relief when Cedric actually managed to critically hit the creature she was fighting and she could put her arm down for a moment to rest.

The two moved together seamlessly and each time Sofia hit one of the creatures with her sword, Cedric was right behind her piercing their heart with an arrow. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't using just a touch of magic to help him aim better. He knew about the archer's paradox, that didn't mean he'd know how to shoot arrows by doing the math in his head. He was only using a small amount of magic, nothing that would draw the enemies to their location.

With three more of them left, Cedric quickly spit out three arrows, hitting all of them perfectly and watched them fall to the ground. Sofia turned to him, stared at him gratefully and walked over, panting.

"You did well, Princess." He complimented and she gave him a sour look.

"Considering I was the one hitting them with a sword, I'd say I did more than well. You, though, were awesome." Cedric smiled at her praise and helped her put the quiver back on. The sword disappeared few moments later and they both took a moment to breathe.

"I don't think that's going to be the last of them." Cedric said finally and Sofia nodded grimly. "Unfortunately we have to do this without the use of magic so I'm rather useless." Cedric sighed and Sofia frowned at him.

"No you aren't. You were great with the bow! Now come on, we should probably get moving. I don't want to run into any more of them any time soon..." Cedric could only agree and they pressed on.

* * *

It didn't take too long for them to run into their next problem. This problem, however, was much larger.

"Please don't tell me that's-"

"A giant spider made from human body parts? Well it looks that way." Cedric tried to remain calm and sarcastic but even he couldn't stop the stomach lurch.

Sofia was rigid, sweat beading down her forehead and she struggled to catch her breath. Cedric was in the same boat, being absolutely terrified and glued to the spot. He took a single step back and stepped on a branch, making it break. The several human heads attached to the center of the spider snapped in their direction and they all made a loud shrieking noise and sprang into action. The legs of the spider were made of both human arms and legs and it wasn't completely even so it galloped in a strange way.

Sofia quickly shot an arrow in its direction but it only made the spider angrier and it screamed louder, making the leaves from the trees fall down.

Sofia's amulet shone brightly through the dark fog and an axe fabricated in her hand. She glanced at Cedric. His eyebrows were furrowed together, he took a deep breath and grabbed the axe from her hands, and before he could lose his nerve, ran up to the spider and swung. He lobbed off one of the legs and a spray of blood splatter coated the forest ground. Sofia's amulet gave her another axe and with all her strength, she threw it. It spun through the air and when it hit the spider, it sliced through one of the heads.

The spider made a guttural noise that slowly turned into a loud screech. Cedric quickly backed away from it and went to Sofia.

"I don't know how to beat this one." He admitted and Sofia's eyes burned with tears. "Don't tell me the sadness is coming back."

"No. Well, I suppose I'm sad but I'm just scared. We can't do this without help!" Sofia started breathing quickly and heavily. Cedric gave a wary look to the spider, which was still stumbling around trying to get its equilibrium in balance.

Sofia's amulet started to glow, her and Cedric stared at it in anticipation.

"What do you need help with, Princess?" Sofia and Cedric's eyes widened.

"You didn't tell me your amulet could summon Princes!" Cedric harshly whispered and Sofia continued to stare in shock.

"I-I didn't know." Sofia stuttered and Prince Eugene looked around at the scene before him and blanched.

"What on earth did you two get me into?" He asked slowly and unsheathed his sword.

"Just be grateful you were transported with a weapon." Cedric said dryly and Eugene gave him a side eye and examined the spider.

"What have you tried so far?"

"Arrows make it angry and Cedric cut a leg off and I hit one of the heads with that axe there and it's still standing." Eugene nodded slowly.

"Sounds about right. I think I know what to do. This creature is made up of body parts, which is totally gross, but they usually have something keeping them together in the middle. A heart of some sort if you will. You just have to find it."

"And are _you_ going to help us with that or are you just going to disappear now?" Cedric questioned and Eugene grinned at him.

"Being a prince has gotten pretty boring. I was looking for some excitement. Let's see what we can do. They don't call me Flynn Rider for nothing." He smirked and Cedric perked a brow.

"They don't. They call you Prince Eugene." Eugene elected to ignore that and walked towards the spider. The remaining seven heads' eyes focused on him and it jumped into a defensive position and growled. Sofia quickly stood by his side and Cedric reluctantly followed.

"Distract it with your arrows. I need to get under it." He whispered to Sofia and Cedric struggled to listen. Sofia nodded and pulled out her bow.

"Princess, try to aim for the heads if you can. If we can blind them, this will go a lot more smoothly." Cedric instructed and Sofia turned to him and smiled.

How he wished that smile didn't seem so final. Like something bad would happen.

"Be careful." Sofia nodded and turned to the beast and let her arrows fly.

It started to scatter around erratically and Eugene ducked out of its line of sight. She diverted its attention well enough that Eugene was able to slip under it without much trouble. He thrust is sword up and one of the arms grabbed him, flinging him to the side. Sofia's eyes widened and she was sidetracked for a moment.

"Sofia! Don't stop shooting! Cedric!" Eugene gave Cedric an important look and Cedric nodded.

Cedric backed up, blanketing himself in the cover of the trees. He nimbly made his way around to the perfect spot to sneak under the spider. His hands were sweating and he couldn't hear anything over the sound of blood pumping in his ears. Before he could lose his nerve, he jumped out from where he was hiding and rolled under the spider, narrowly missing its leg. He grabbed the sword and twisted it, eliciting a scream. He yanked out the sword and shoved his arm into the gaping hole and started pulling out whatever he could get his hands on. The spider above him flailed, fruitlessly trying to grab him with its legs but Sofia hit each leg with her arrows that moved to get to him.

With one final reach, Cedric felt the thumping pulse of its heart. With a sickening grin, he pulled it out and rolled out from under the spider and watched it collapse. He dropped the heart by his side and sighed in relief, he looked up at Sofia who smiled widely at him. He smiled back at her and they both took that moment to breathe. Eugene pushed himself up from the base of the tree where the spider had thrown him.

"Good job you two. But I think my back is thoroughly broken." Eugene managed to smile as her rubbed his back with a wince.

"Thank you for all of your help, we couldn't have done it without you." Sofia said sincerely and gave him the sweetest smile she could muster at that moment. Cedric frowned slightly, trying to keep his inappropriately timed jealousy to himself. Eugene looked at him and smirked.

"Thanks princess, but the real hero here is Cedric. Couldn't have killed the beast without him ripping out the heart." He commended and Cedric smiled at the praise. "Anyway, sorry. Hate to go but I gotta." He gave a wave and suddenly he was gone.

"We do have to have a chit-chat about that amulet and its apparent ability to summon princes." Cedric drawled, trying not to sound any bit of jealous.

"Well, I honestly didn't know it could do that..." Sofia walked up to Cedric as she secured her bow to her back. "I knew it summoned princesses when I needed help but I had no idea it would send princes too!"

Without warning, the fog dissipated in front of them. There were no more noises scattered throughout the forest. No shrieks, screams, or anything. Just the sound of them breathing.

Sofia stopped in front of Cedric now that she could see clearly, and took in his appearance. His hair matted to his head with blood, his right arm completely drenched in it. He had a few tears in his robe and she was just noticing the scratches he had on his face. She'd never seen him so disheveled before and for some reason her fondness grew. He was her savior, even if he didn't realized.

Cedric also was examining the princess. Her hair was in a messed up ponytail, dirt on her clothes and face. Her clothes had some burn holes, probably from the creatures before. They didn't have blood, but acid came out from their bodies. She was close enough to get the splatter. She even had burn marks on her skin that made him frown. He didn't realize she'd gotten hurt.

He then took a minute to realize that Sofia wasn't the same princess she was before. She stood before him in torn, burned clothes with blood speckled on her pants and messy hair. She wielded a sword, and she did it well. Her arrow shooting skills were ones to praise. When did she grow up so much? His heart ached at the fondness he felt for her.

"Mister Cedric." Sofia said quietly and took his hands, even the bloody one. "There's no one I'd rather save the kingdom with."

Cedric was touched by her words and took a minute to really let them sink in. He basked in her compliment and pulled his hands away so he could grasp hers.

"There's no one else I would do this with." He admitted and they walked on with the mountains in view, hand in hand.

* * *

Holla. Finally getting out of the fucking forest. The next chapter should be the two at Suicide Pact and the reason for the name!

Try to send me some love, It motivates me to write (especially when you have a small child running around, I need all the motivation I can get lol)

Oh and another question, who do you think stole the ring? Like who's gonna be the big boss at the end?


	5. Malignant Falls-Suicide Pact

I'm so gone with this pairing, you should see my sketchbook -_- I need a life.

I'm just realizing how much I'm writing but not getting very far. Like 14,000 words in and it's only been a day. Dayum son. This story is going to take forever.

* * *

 **Chapter Five** **:**

"Hold." Cedric said abruptly and pulled out his wand. With a quick incantation, the blood cleaned off his body and his robe disappeared leaving him in his green shirt and red vest. He cleaned up Sofia as well and when he felt like he'd don a satisfactory job, he began to walk again.

"Mister Cedric, what's the story of Suicide Pact?" Sofia asked suddenly and Cedric sighed.

"Well, I don't suppose it could be more gruesome than a spider made from human remains..." He mumbled and cleared his throat. "Suicide Pact is a mountain that if you climb it you are... coerced into jumping by a force in which no one knows. The valley through the mountain is said to be adorned with skeletons of people who've jumped and died. It's also supposed to be one of the most haunted places on earth, right behind the cave of souls, obviously. The valley is only about 1 ½ miles long give or take but with the vengeful spirits at work, you should feel more inclined to start climbing up the mountain. Do not do that."

"That sounds so sad..." Sofia sighed and stopped walking. Cedric paused when he realized the princess stopped following him.

"What is it princess?" She was grateful his voice had that sarcastic bite to it. She needed something familiar. She felt like she was losing herself in this adventure.

"Remember when I took you with me to see Merlin when I was 8?" She asked softly and Cedric took a step closer to her and urged her to continue. "I just wish... that everything was that simple. Sure, we were fighting an evil Sorceress but we never had to deal with anything this bloody before and I don't like it."

"Nor do I, princess. But if I do recall correctly you're the one who insisted on continuing this adventure." When he saw the sad look in her eyes he wished he hadn't said anything.

"My family..." Was all Sofia could say and Cedric sighed loudly and opened his arms.

"Come here, princess." She quickly closed the distance between them and buried her face in his neck. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and stared at the top of her head. He felt like he was looking at her naked without her tiara. Right now she wasn't Sofia the First, Princess of Enchancia. She was just Sofia. And he wasn't Cedric the Sensational, Royal Sorcerer of Enchancia, he was just Cedric. Was that enough to rescue the kingdom? Just Sofia and Cedric?

"I'm feeling sad again." Her voice cracked and Cedric held her tighter and let his chin rest on top of her head. For a while they found comfort in each other.

"Sofia." Sofia sniffled and pulled away so she could look at Cedric. "Yesterday you were a princess and I was a sorcerer. Today we're just Sofia and Cedric. And honestly, I've never felt surer that I could do something than I do right now with you by my side."

"Cedric..." Sofia said softly and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, letting her chin sit on his shoulder. "You're the reason I can do this."

* * *

They stepped through the last of the trees and stood in front of a very rocky path, feeling dwarfed by the mountains that loomed overhead. Malignant Falls had a way of making her feel sad but the true despair she felt was overwhelming now.

"Are you okay, Sofia?" Cedric asked quickly and she covered her mouth and shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"There's just... so much sadness." Her eyes were wet with tears and Cedric stared at the valley and felt unsurprised by his lack of feelings. It would take someone extremely pure to tap into the pain of Suicide Pact. "I just want to help them."

"Sofia, they're way passed our help." Cedric insisted and pulled out his wand. "I need to teach you a quick spell. We're going to run into a lot of ghosts. There are a few things to deter them, but we don't have unlimited access to holy water so salt will have to do. You hold up your wand like so, swirl it once counter clockwise, flick your wand, and say _spiritus conditus_. Can you remember that?" Sofia nodded hesitantly and Cedric walked into the valley.

"It's getting dark outside." Sofia noted and Cedric examined the sky.

"Sundown is in about an hour. We have an hour to get out of here, the spirits are more malevolent during the night. There should be a safe area to camp after the valley and before spirit cave." Sofia followed him and Cedric made sure he didn't walk too far ahead of her. His ears were honed in on her movements.

Sofia let her mind wonder as they walked. She stared at the backside of her sorcerer and couldn't believe the transformation he went through, even in the past few days. One of the reasons she loved him so much was his bravado and theatrics. None of that he carried with him in Malignant Falls. He seemed stronger somehow. She was awed by the power he was able to tap into. He wasn't bumbling about and tripping, he held his head high, careful calculated steps. She knew right then that she was right for letting herself fall in love. She'd fallen in love with a clumsy guy who rarely got his spells right because he was so flustered and she had a protective powerful sorcerer with her now. Just like it changed when she was growing up, her love changed again. And this time she knew that if anything were to happen to her, he would be there to fight for her. It was an exhilarating feeling, one that she couldn't help but smile, despite the feeling of sadness in hear heart.

Cedric was impressed with the length of the valley they were able to walk through undisturbed. They had to walk at least a quarter of a mile with no apparent change. Everything was rocky and it was a pain to climb over each boulder, but so far they only had to come across that. Maybe the books had been wrong and this was just a valley? Were they even in Suicide Pact?

Cedric was so immersed in his thinking that he forgot to keep an ear out for Sofia. He turned his head and his heart stopped.

"Sofia?" He squeaked and quickly stumbled trying to run back. "Sofia!" He finally looked up and saw her climbing up the side of the mountain. She didn't get very far up but that didn't stop his heart from getting stuck in his throat. "Sofia!" He tripped several times on the rocks but managed to finally get to the mountain base.

Never had Cedric had to scale the side of a mountain but that didn't stop him. He was impressed with how fast he scrambled up the mountain. Sofia was steady climbing at a pace that seemed almost exaggeratingly slow. Cedric was close to her, but fell when he grabbed a rock and it crumbled in his hand. He hit his head on the rocks below and suddenly he saw black.

* * *

When Cedric opened his eyes again, the sky was darker. The sun was still up but barely. He sat up slowly, wincing at the sharp pain on the back of his head. Suddenly he remembered Sofia and pushed himself off the ground in record time. He couldn't see her. His body trembled, he almost felt like he was vibrating he was shaking so much. His breath was haggard and choppy. Cedric's eyes burned with unshed tears and he pressed his lips into a thin line.

Through his internal plight, he suddenly remembered what Merlin had taught him all those years ago when Sofia was only eight. A spell to make you climb the wall like a lizard. It took a few painstakingly slow minutes but he finally remembered the spell and spoke it, trying to keep his stutter at bay. He ran to the mountain base again and judiciously placed his hands down. When he felt the pull he quickly began climbing up.

Cedric felt warmth trickle down the back of his neck. He knew then that he was bleeding but there was nothing to do now. He kept climbing. He didn't have an exact time of how long he'd been out, just a rough estimate. Based on the sun, he'd been out for twenty minutes, which didn't seem long but he didn't know how long it took to reach the top of the mountain. He pressed on.

With the speed he was going, it didn't take him very long to see the purple figure of Sofia climbing up the mountain slowly. His nerves were frazzled and it took all he had to keep climbing and not give up. She was almost to one of the ledges of the mountain. He only hoped that she wouldn't try to jump until she got to the top.

"Sofia!" He knew yelling for her wouldn't do much good, she was in a trance. She couldn't hear anything but he supposed he did it for himself. "I'm coming! Don't jump!"

His arms burned with fatigue. He wasn't sure he could get up to her. He was so exhausted. He couldn't hold the spell properly, so he started sliding down slowly. He had enough time to grab onto a rock and hold himself. He bit his lip. He knew he had trouble. He could barely keep himself up with a spell to let him climb up the mountain like he was crawling on a floor and now he had to pull himself up rock after rock. All he had to do was get to the ledge to give himself enough time to rest his arms. Sofia was almost there. She was so close.

Completely disregarding the terrible burn of his arms he pulled himself up, rock after rock. When he looked up again, Sofia was pulling herself onto the ledge and he was only a few feet away. His arms were numb at this point and he didn't know how he was still holding on. He didn't want to look down, he knew he was up ridiculously high.

Sofia stood on the ledge and her head tilted to the side as she stared down. Her eyes were vacant; she almost looked blind. Her pupils were blue, blending in with her irises. She took another step to the ledge as Cedric grabbed the ledge.

"Sofia! Please don't jump!" He grunted. He couldn't do it. He couldn't lift himself up once more. It was too much. "Please Sofia! Listen to me!" He choked on his words, struggling to keep himself from crying. His hands hopelessly grabbed the flat surface of the ledge, he kept trying to pull himself up but he was so tired and now the blood tickled his lower back. "Sofia..."

She walked closer to the ledge and all Cedric could think about was when he first met her. He'd been so mean to her. That is until he saw the amulet. Then it was just fake niceness and false promises. He'd manipulated her time and time again. She never knew it either, she always trusted him. Every time she had a problem she would go running to Cedric to help her fix it. Never once did she think he was just being nice because of his own selfish agenda. He didn't see it coming the day he helped her and honestly just wanted her to smile. Then eventually he helped her and didn't care about the amulet. He loved the way it looked around her neck, purple or pink, it matched her. She got through to him. She was his only friend. And now she stood on the ledge and all he could think about were the horrible things that he'd done. He didn't deserve to be her friend, she was perfect.

"Please Sofia. Don't do this." His voice cracked and she took another step forward, her toes dangling off of the ledge.

Suddenly she was 8 years old running into his chambers excitedly about a gold star he helped her get in sorcery. She told him he was the best sorcerer ever. For once, he believed it. He didn't doubt it. She helped him become a better sorcerer. He wouldn't be this way if it weren't for her. He remembered the wand case she made him for Wassalia. He still had that wand case. It was one of his most treasured possessions. Every year she got him something for Wassalia and every year he'd pretend to be annoyed and told her he didn't get her anything because she didn't need anything, she got what she wanted she was a princess. She would smile at him and roll her eyes like she was saying 'yeah of course you didn't get me anything'. He always did get her something. He'd give it to her on the cusp of the day, she'd wait around all Wassalia to be given her gift. At this point she expected it. To wait all day for a present.

Tears ran down his face as he desperately tried to grab her ankle. The logical part of his brain said that it wouldn't do any good but he _needed_ to touch her. She couldn't jump. Why did he think bringing her with him was a good idea? He should've just left the princess at the castle! Why did she touch that damn potion?! And what potion did his mother think he made? Good for them? What was going on!

"Sofia! Snap out of it! Don't let it take you from me!" She turned her head to look at him, eyes still vacant. She looked like a doll. He remembered each smile she sent his way. Every time she dragged him to the dance floor. She was the only one he'd dance with. He stared at his best friend, frantically trying to get to her. He cursed himself for being too weak to just _pull himself up one more time_. Just once and he'd get to her.

Her head turned away from him and she stared back down.

"No! Nonono! Sofia!" She jumped. "No!" Cedric pushed himself off the ledge with all the strength he could muster. They were both falling-fast. He outstretched his arms and willed himself to fall faster, to get to her. He finally felt her coat and he grabbed it and yanked her to his chest and embraced her from behind. He quickly pulled out his wand and pointed it at the incoming ground. His mind was everywhere, he saw the rocks getting closer and closer and _damn it what was the spell?!_ It struck him all at once, he hoped he had the time.

"TARDUS LAPSUM!" Everything slowed down.

* * *

I actually asked my husband his opinion on the chapter ending. It was going to be either what I wrote or he was going to finally hoist himself up on the ledge and hold her and just cry. My husband likes the theatrics I suppose. Plus I like writing a self destructive Cedric. Although I'm sad my story calls for him to be more serious than he is in the show. I love him silly but I couldn't write like that. In case you were wondering why he's kind of OOC. I'll fix it after the adventure (I don't know how far this story will go after the adventure.)

I asked this last chapter but no one answered. Who do you think will be the bad guy at the end of the road?

And come on and give me some love! I got some fluff-ish angst going on.


	6. Malignant Falls-Flashback

I got bored so here's the next chapter. I don't think I'll update twice in one day like ever again so I hope you appreciate it lol

* * *

 **Chapter six:**

The sky was dark when Cedric opened his eyes. He felt the weight of Sofia laying on top of him. He wanted to shake her awake but couldn't find the strength to do it. He could hear movement from further down the valley. His arms wrapped protectively around Sofia's waist. His body was throbbing and he was fairly certain his back was covered in his blood.

"Sofia." He whispered. "Sofia please, wake up. Please don't be gone." She didn't make a noise. He struggled to sit up with her on top of him. He checked her pulse, she was still alive, at least he had that. He barely had any energy left, certainly no mana. He wouldn't be able to protect them. They'd surely die.

Cedric furrowed his brow and his eyes landed on Sofia's amulet as it twinkled around her neck. He grasped it tightly and leaned his head down, bringing his lips to the amulet.

"Please. Please help us. Help me protect her." When nothing happened, Cedric wanted to cry. When he looked up, he saw figures walking towards them. _Ghosts_. Cedric held Sofia close to his body, putting her in his lap. He stroked her hair and rocked her. "I wish I could've protected you better."

All at once, Cedric felt the anguish of the adventure. All the energy they put into it only for it to end now. He'd done things He never thought were possible, he was sure he could do it because Sofia was there. He'd never forget the day he first realized he loved her.

He'd known he cared for her a great deal but on his birthday last year is when he came to the realization that he loved Sofia. Maybe that wasn't strong enough phrase for what he felt. He was in love with Sofia. So much it ached.

* * *

*Flashback*

On his birthday, he woke up to the king summoning him to the throne room. He thought, for once, the king remembered his birthday. He didn't, he just needed Cedric to get ready to entertain a tea party Princess Amber was throwing. For whatever reason, Cedric felt so... disappointed. He'd been working for King Roland for years and he didn't even remember it was his birthday. He supposed it was a dumb thing to be sad about but still. Then, Sofia came into the room for whatever reason and he saw her eyes lit up and that infectious smile spread across her face.

"Mister Ceedrick!" She grinned at her joke and he rolled his eyes at her.

"Cedric..." He corrected with a grumble.

"I've been looking everywhere for you! Happy Birthday!" She ran across the room and damn near tackled him in a hug. "I have the _whole_ day planned. First, we're going to see your parents in Mystic Meadows because your mom will throw a fit if she doesn't see you, then-"

"Sofia." Roland interrupted and Sofia stopped talking and stared at her father. "Cedric's services are needed today..." He said slowly and Sofia looked at Cedric, then back at her father and smiled.

"That's okay. You can cancel them." She grabbed Cedric's arm and led him out of the room. Cedric will never forget the look of shock and mild humor on the king's face. When he looked back at Sofia, he couldn't help the warm feeling that spread all the way to his fingers and toes. He felt that way all day with her.

When the day ended, they were in the gardens and she stopped him and pulled out a present from one of the bushes.

"Happy birthday Mister Cedric." She said so softly and warm.

The gift was a miniature crystal ball, no bigger than his palm. He picked it up and held it in his hands and Sofia's smile widened. She pulled out one that was matching.

"I know I usually make your presents but I really liked this. We can use them to talk to each other when we're in different places! If you keep it in your pocket, my wisdom will always be there when you need it!" Cedric almost pulled her in for a kiss then. How could she always find the most thoughtful gifts? Nevertheless, he couldn't let her know that of course!

"You mean that YOU will have access to MY infinite wisdom, yes? Just another gift for your own selfish desires..." He put the crystal in his pocket and Sofia giggled at him.

"O-kay! I admit it; I just wanted to be able to hear your voice whenever I wanted." Her smile was so soft and so lovely. Cedric's façade of sarcasm melted off right then and he looked at her as if she hung the stars. Sofia's face turned a rosy pink color and his arm reached out to hold her head so he could kiss her, but he quickly corrected himself and pat her on the shoulder instead. She continued to smile, but he saw the disappointment on her face. He convinced himself it was nothing.

"I don't know who wouldn't want to hear my voice whenever they wanted. I'm pretty sensational." To this day, he doesn't know why he purred out the sensational part, but it was enough to turn Sofia's face bright red... and his too for that matter. He quickly looked away from her and they sat in silence. It wasn't awkward, at least for her. He was pretty embarrassed but there was nothing awkward about them sitting next to each other.

"You are sensational, aren't you?" She whispered to him, he looked at her and she had a grin on her face. He rolled his eyes.

"Back to the ass kissing, hm?" She giggled at him and playfully tapped his shoulder. "And now you're abusing the royal sorcerer! I'll have you know that I'm very important! Sometimes, the king even lets me put on magic shows for your sister, Princess Amber." He sarcastically boasted and she stared at him for a minute before looking sad.

"Was that what you were supposed to do today?" He nodded and she hugged him. "Why don't they know it's your birthday? It's been the same for the entire time you've been here!" Sofia asked and Cedric nodded.

"Yes, and even before then it happened to be on the same day as well." She looked at him and tried not to smile.

"You know what I mean." She said flatly.

"Well, Princess. It seems you're the only one that cares." He tried to make light of it, but he couldn't help the slight sadness that hung in the words.

"I think everyone should care." She admitted softly.

"Well, they don't. But you know what? I don't care. You remembering is more than enough. So thank you, Princess." Sofia was surprised at the sweetness of the admission. She felt the butterflies in her stomach and smiled at her lap.

"I would never forget your birthday, Cedric."

After they said goodnight and he walked her to her chambers, he retired to his room and ran up to the painting of his parents.

"Mummy! Quickly I need to talk to you!" He cried and she came over that instant.

"Oh my Ceddy-kins! What's wrong? Did someone hurt you?" She asked and he sat down in his chair and sighed. "Well?"

"Mummy I don't know what to do." She sat on his table and for a second he was irritated at her, that was Sofia's spot! He quickly vanquished the feeling and felt even worse.

"Tell your mummy, Ceddy. What happened?" Cedric winced and Winifred cupped his face and looked him in the eyes. "You can tell me anything." She promised and he looked away from her, his face bright red.

"I-I-I... Mummy, I'm in love." He looked pained as he admitted it and all Winifred did was smile at him. "Aren't you going to ask who?!"

"Sofia." She said simply.

"Frankly, I'm surprised it took you as long as you did." Goodwyn commented after coming out of the portrait to join his wife.

"Father!" Cedric said indignantly. "This was a private conversation!"

"Well, my dear boy, no conversation is private with that portrait there." Goodwyn deadpanned and Cedric's cheeks burned. He wasn't sure if he'd ever said anything blush-worthy but he was sure at some point there was. "Although I'm proud of you for finally admitting your feelings, to yourself at least."

"You're telling me you two knew?" Cedric asked flatly, like he didn't believe them.

"Yes." They responded in unison.

"Honestly, you aren't very subtle. Earlier today when you two were over you were fawning all over each other." Winifred said simply and Cedric raised an eyebrow.

"I was not _fawning_." He sneered. "I don't _fawn_ over anyone."

"Okay then." Goodwyn said easily. "You were smitten. Overly smitten."

"Smitten?! That's even worse!" Cedric whined and his father smirked at him.

"Well, if there was one word to explain you two best, that would be it. Smitten with each other." Cedric frowned and looked away, but then realization dawned on him and he quickly turned back, unfolding his arms.

"Wait. You said _we're_ smitten? As in both of us?" Winifred and Goodwyn shared a look and a smile.

"Are you asking us if we thinks she likes you?" Goodwyn teased and Cedric blushed again and looked anywhere but his father.

"I-I mean... no." He said pathetically and his mother giggled.

"Yes, she most certainly likes you, sweetheart."

"She's a little young, don't you think?" Goodwyn commented and Cedric's face fell. She was 16, this was when princess usually got betrothed to their suitors. Was it weird that he felt this way about a 16 year old?

"I'll wait then." Cedric decided. "I'll wait until she's older and if by some... crazy chance she still feels the same way..." Cedric trailed off and frowned. He didn't think she liked him now, what makes him think she'd like him in two years?

"I think it's very sweet of you to wait." Winifred kissed the top of his head. "And when you finally decide to be together, I know just the potion for you to brew!"

"Winifred." Goodwyn said in a warning tone. "We don't need them linking their hearts just yet."

"Well if they're in love, they'll want to. It only strengthens their magic."

"Yes, but it also makes them weaker to the other's emotion. And it's very complicated magic. True love magic is the hardest there is, you know." Cedric did know that. It was also the rarest form of magic.

"What does the potion do?" He asked and Goodwyn sighed.

"It links your hearts together so you can always feel each other. It also directly links your mana so you can pull from each other and freely give one another magic. It's very difficult to control, however. If you use this potion on someone who isn't your true love, it can seriously damage your heart. However, if you use this on your true love and they die, let's just say things won't end very well for you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He means..." Winifred pursed her lips and held Cedric's hands in hers. "If you use this potion and Sofia dies, you _will_ succumb to darkness."

"Why on earth would anyone use that potion if such a risk exists?" Cedric asked with distaste.

"Pain is weakness. With that is love." Was Winifred's simple response.

* * *

Cedric was hunched over Sofia's unconscious body and let himself laugh bitterly. This was really the end.

The figures were closing in on them.

Cedric looked down at Sofia one last time to take in her beauty. She was so beautiful and she didn't even realize what she did to him. Cedric shivered and tried so hard to stop himself from tearing up, but he couldn't help it. He held Sofia closer to him, trying to keep her to himself. As if the creatures would leave her alone if he protected her with his body.

He'd never loved anyone this selflessly before. He'd never loved anyone, honestly. But Sofia made him want to be a better him. Maybe that was true love. And if he was to die with his true love in his arms, so be it. He only wished he could keep her alive. He sniffled and a tear ran down his cheek...

And fell and landed on the amulet.

The amulet gave a soft hum and Cedric's eyes were closed tight, preparing for the worst. He noticed a light shining so brightly it hurt through his eyelids. He cautiously opened his eyes and saw the amulet was floating a few inches above Sofia's chest. When he looked up there was a dull force field around them. He saw the ghosts get closer but once they touched the force field they were jerked away and they retreated.

Cedric stared in awe at the amulet and then laughed. It was a dry, desperate laugh but he couldn't stop. He held Sofia closer and kissed the top of her head.

"We may just make it, princess."

* * *

I normally hate flashback chapters (not sure why I just always did) but this one was necessary for the sake of the plot! Not only was there some slight Cedfia lovin' but a lot of the plot was put into action!

Let me know if you caught what it is!

Also! Let me know if there is a character you'd like to see be summoned!


	7. Malignant Falls

This chapter was a lot harder to write than the others. It's hard to write romance with the fate of the kingdom on their hands.

* * *

 **Chapter Seven:**

The force field held up the entire night and eventually Cedric was able to fall asleep. He tried to heal himself as much as he could in his state but it was just enough to stop the bleeding but the cut was still very prominent. His head was pounding and he couldn't think straight but he was safe and so was Sofia.

Cedric slept sitting up, making sure Sofia was as comfortable as she could be in his lap. When Cedric finally woke up it was daylight and his whole body ached but he could feel his power was back. He healed himself and loosened his stiff muscles.

"Sofia." Cedric whispered. "Sofia can you wake up for me?"

Her eyes fluttered open and Cedric's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't handle the relief he felt and pulled her into a hug.

"Mister Cedric? What happened?" She seemed worried and he pulled away from her and she felt comfort in the way he stroked her hair as he cupped her face in his hands.

"Um..." His voice cracked and he looked to the side, blinking away tears and sniffled. Once he composed himself he turned to face her again. "You were swayed by the force of the Suicide Pact and you climbed up the mountain and jumped..." Cedric's voice broke off and he swallowed down a sob and looked away again.

"I jumped? How am I alive?" Sofia was surprised. She couldn't remember a thing past walking through the valley.

"I um... I was able to catch up to you and I... well I jumped with you and cast a spell to stop the momentum so we didn't die from the impact. You passed out and we slept here." Sofia looked around, now noticing she was laying in Cedric's lap in the middle of the valley on a very rocky path.

"We stayed here all night?" She climbed off his lap and he frowned at the loss of warmth. "You held me all night?"

"Yes." He said simply and averted his gaze to the ground. He didn't want to know what she thought about the 32 year old royal sorcerer holding her all night. His chin was pulled by her finger to look her in the eyes as she knelt to his eye level.

"Thank you." She said sincerely. He could feel even her eyes thanking him. He smiled weakly, not knowing what else to do and Sofia hugged him tightly, kneeling between his legs. He hugged her back and she cried.

"I'm so sorry you had to do all of that. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry-"

"Sofia stop it." Cedric said sharply and pushed her away, holding her shoulders. "You are the most pure person I know and that is exactly why the mountains affected you as they did. I wish I paid closer attention to you though. I could've stopped you before you climbed up the mountain but I was just... lost in thought I suppose..."

"Cedric, how did we stay in the middle of the valley without anything... attacking us?" Cedric motioned the amulet. "My amulet?"

"I guess it decided to cast a force field. Nothing could get to us, although for a while I was worried we would die. I used all of my mana and I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry, Sofia." Sofia hugged him again and he hugged her back. He almost broke again. "I thought I was going to lose you."

"You could never lose me too long. I'd find you in the spirit world and annoy you there too." She giggled. "Mister Ceedric."

"Cedric." He corrected with fake annoyance. His sad feelings were momentarily at bay and he just felt lucky to have her.

"Thank you for doing everything you did to protect me. It means the world to me." Sofia kissed his cheek and his face burned. She smiled at him and picked herself up and offered her hand to him and helped him stand up.

* * *

"Well, at least we got out of there without too much trouble." Sofia said happily once they reached the end of the path. Cedric held her hand the entire time to make sure she didn't wonder off (so he said) and Cedric stared at her long and hard and she blushed. "Oh... Well at least we got out of there without too much trouble that I remember. Only you had to deal with it." He glared at her.

"Yes. Thank Merlin for small favors..." He mumbled.

"So what should we do here? We were planning on resting here but we slept the entire night. Should we still wait here?" It was a fair question, and one that had Cedric pondering.

"If I remember correctly, after soul cave, it spits you out into the Despondent Maze which will probably take a really long time. I don't know about you, Princess but I'm famished." Cedric pulled out his wand and summoned a comfortable mat to sit on and sighed happily. "This is way better than sleeping on rocks..."

Sofia grinned and took a seat next to him and dumped out the bag, but was surprised to see everything was completely rotten.

"How is that possible?" Sofia whispered and Cedric sneered and waved his wand, getting rid of it all.

"I'm not too shocked; Malignant Falls was bound to do something weird to our food." He flicked his wand and a bowl of pasta appeared and Sofia's eyes lit up. "Eat up dear, I'm sure you're tired of fruit, I know I am."

Cedric laid down and stared at the sky. There was something calm about looking up at the blue sky, the sun blazing overhead. It was almost ominous. When evil beings were out and about, Cedric felt that the weather should match it. As he stared at the sky, he realized there was more important things to the gods than the dealings with humans. It was disconcerting to know that your life didn't mean as much as you thought.

Sofia finished eating and laid down next to Cedric and scanned his face noticing all of the scratches and bruises. She never really examined him this closely before and it was exciting. She traced the outlines of his face with her eyes and admired the way the sun lit up his dark brown eyes. She wondered if he realized how... perfect he looked to her. She loved each line and wrinkle on his face, his smile, his expressive eyebrows and she even loved his nose. What was most enticing, however, were his lips. They weren't very big, but she was amazed by the way her eyes seemed to gravitate back to them each time she tried to look away.

Cedric eventually felt her staring at him and turned his head to stare at her in the eyes. She smiled warmly and he smiled back.

"Is there something you need, princess?" He asked with a perked eyebrow and she stifled a giggle.

"I just..." Her cheeks turned pink. "I was looking at your cuts. I think I saw you pack a healing potion..." She sat up and grabbed the bag and dug through it looking for the familiar baby blue liquid, and Cedric felt a disappointing stab at her averted attention.

"Here we go!" She popped the cork and put a few drops of the creamy liquid on her fingertip. "Don't move." She warned and dabbed at his cuts, happy they were closing up as she touched them. "Anywhere else?"

"I have one on the back of my head." He said softly, she was so close to his face.

Sofia moved to kneel behind him and parted his hair looking for the cut. When she found it she bit her lip. It looked half healed but still pretty terrible.

"What happened?" She asked and he laughed despite himself.

"I fell off the mountain when I was climbing after you." He admitted and she wanted to cry. He must've realized and quickly added, "Sofia you mustn't blame yourself. I don't blame you even slightly." He turned to face her and overestimated the amount of room he had between him and her when he saw he was merely inches away from her face.

"I never wanted you to get hurt..." She swallowed thickly at the closeness. "I care about you, Cedric. You know that, don't you?" Her face looked almost pained with how much emotion she expressed.

"Sofia... I care for you too." She smiled bright and hugged him close. He wrapped his arms around her, letting himself go in her arms. He missed her smell of lavender. "Even at 8 years old, you have always been my best friend."

The comment both flattered and confused Sofia. Was this him saying that she was just a friend to him? She decided not to push the issue, there was more to be worried about other than her love life. However, she did take the time of closeness to breathe in the scent of sandalwood that she felt was engrained in his skin.

* * *

Once they were completely rested up, Cedric rose to his feet and offered his hand. Sofia gladly took it and he spelled away everything he conjured and they shared a nervous smile and began walking on the path that led to Soul Cave. Sofia absentmindedly laced her fingers with Cedric's and he clasped their hands together and smiled softly to himself with a burning in his cheeks.

"What is in Soul Cave?" Cedric looked down at Sofia, then back in front of him and thought. "And does it have a story behind it?"

"I'm actually unsure of all the lore behind Soul Cave. I only know it's said to house a rather large amount of Wraiths. Piercing them through the heart with silver should do just fine."

"You know... I never asked how you were holding up with all of this. I know my family is under the curse but so is yours." Sofia felt horrible for not asking sooner but Cedric just scoffed.

"My parents will be fine. I love my mother dearly but it's her fault for losing the ring in the first place. She knows how powerful it is. And my father? Well, not much to say there." Sofia was shocked by his cold feelings towards his family being cursed.

"Do you know what the curse is?" Cedric shook his head.

"It seems to be some frozen sleep spell but anything among that, I honestly couldn't tell you. I've never seen it before. I do know that it was cast right after I saw my mother though. I saw the curse hit her. And I'll never forget the time, 4:26. It's strange, like a number burned into my mind. I'm just honestly lucky you touched the potion as well. I don't know what I would do if I had to do this alone."

"I'm touched." Sofia squeezed his hand and his stomach did a somersault. He sent her a weak smile and averted his gaze to the ground. She was too good for him. Did she know that? "Is that the cave?" Cedric looked up and indeed, Soul Cave was still quite the distance away, but stood proudly on the base of one of the mountains. He nodded curtly.

"That's the one."

* * *

They stood at the entrance of the cave, feeling dwarfed by the size of the opening. Cedric's hands started to sweat and Sofia held onto his hand tighter than before, trying to reassure him. In truth, she was terrified too.

"We can do this." She said, but wasn't sure if it was to Cedric or herself. "How long is it?"

"In a hurry to get to the maze, are we?" Cedric drawled sarcastically and her heart pounded even heavier. She forgot about the maze already. "What's in the maze?"

"As far as I know, a sphinx. I hope you're still good at solving riddles. There will be a lot of them."

"Can we use magic or will it be like the forest?" Cedric pondered.

"That is a great question, Sofia. I wish I had any inclination."

"So we're going into this cave blind?"

"Yes. Figuratively and literally apparently." Cedric pulled out his wand. "Lumen Magnum." The tip of his wand shone brightly and they shared one last look before delving into the Soul Cave where shrieks were already heard from outside.

* * *

Where did all my reviewers go last chapter? Was it that bad?

Anyway, my biggest joke in the chapter was the fact that Cedic smelled of Sandalwood. Why is that a joke? Literally every story I've read mentioned Cedric smelling of sandalwood. I think the fandom has made it cannon now.

The next chapter should be all of Soul Cave and at least most of the maze. I might just skip everything else in-between (I never mentioned anything else so it's not too bad) I just want to get to the villain!


	8. Malignant Falls- Soul CaveMaze

Thank you all for your reviews last chapter! I would've had this up sooner but I work weekends so I didn't get the chance to write until tonight.

Anyway, I threw some more clues in this about who the bad guy is and I want to say only about 2-3 more chapters until the bad guy is here! (Unless I drag this on longer but who knows)

* * *

 **Chapter 8:**

After a few tentative minutes of walking with Cedric's wand light, Cedric deduced that they weren't attracted to magic which was a relief. Sofia walked close to him, occasionally checking behind them to make sure nothing was there.

The cave was large but looking further down she noticed the size reduced greatly. There were stalagmite formations on the sides and for the most part the cave was extremely moist. Water dripped from all directions and made echoing noises down their path. Despite being wet, the cave had several really hot spots that Sofia almost choked on. Cedric was dripping sweat only to walk into a chilled part of the cave right after. It had them both shivering.

"What is with the temperature fluctuations?" Sofia asked and Cedric dabbed his face with his vest after removing it. He tossed it to the side, now only wearing his shirt and pants. Sofia unbuttoned her riding jacket and tossed it with Cedric's vest, now only wearing a camisole.

"I'm not sure. I don't sense any magic though." Cedric answered, trying not to stare at Sofia from the corner of his eye. He'd never seen a woman wear something so revealing before! He didn't know what to make of it. Sofia was always dressed up with every body part covered, this was indeed new.

Sofia made a loud shout that she muffled quickly with her hands when she saw a figure standing several feet in front of them. It looked just like a normal person but there was something eerie about the way they stood there.

When she squinted her eyes, she noticed something familiar about the creature. Its body was decayed but it was... definitely familiar. She couldn't place it though and it creeped her out even more. It looked like it had blonde hair, but it was so dirty and matted with mud she couldn't be sure. The eyes though were a bright green. Whatever it was, it looked like a male.

"Be careful Sofia, that's a wraith." Cedric whispered and Sofia felt herself sweat again even though they were in a cold spot. "As quickly as you can, try to shoot it. Remember, silver kills them you just have to pierce their heart."

Sofia nodded shakily and tried to calm her nerves. The wraith made a few staggered steps in their direction and her heart thudded harder. She felt the impending doom of the creature slowly making its way towards them, something about it unnerved her in a way she'd never been before. She took in a deep breath and grabbed the arrow from her quiver and shot at the wraith, hitting it in the shoulder. It stared down and growled and looked back up at her with its eyes burning with hatred. The area sizzled as the silver burned its skin.

"Calm down, Sofia. You can do this." Sofia grabbed another arrow and the wraith was now levitating from the ground and making its way to her quicker.

As it got closer, she noticed its rounded chin and strong jaw. She shook her head, not wanting to believe who she thought it could be but it freaked her out more than she cared to admit.

She let go of the arrow and completely missed. She shook as the wraith closed in on her. Sofia's amulet started glowing and a sword appeared, but Sofia stumbled back and fell to the ground. Cedric dropped his wand and grabbed the sword and shoved it through the wraith's heart and it let out a loud scream and burned into ash.

They sat in darkness, the wand ceasing the spell once it was discarded so Cedric couldn't find it for a moment. When he finally grabbed it he mumbled a quick _lumen magnum_ and the cave was illuminated with light once more.

"Are you alright, princess?" Cedric asked as he helped her up, sword forgotten on the cave ground.

"Did you see him?" Sofia asked more aggressively than she intended to.

"I did..." Cedric looked at her confused but her eyes welled with tears. "What has you so upset?"

"Did you _see_ him?" She asked now completely facing Cedric. She was worrying him.

"I saw the wraith—"

"He looked like _James_!" Sofia cried and Cedric's brow furrowed.

"Sofia... It has to be a coincidence; James is in the castle in the throne room." Cedric assured and Sofia ran her fingers through her greasy hair.

"I-It doesn't matter. He just looked like James and it really... freaked me out I guess." She took a deep breath and Cedric glanced at the pile of ash on the ground, wary.

* * *

"How long have we been walking?" Sofia asked after what seemed like an eternity.

"I'm guessing about 30 minutes but what's strange is I hear many wraiths and yet we've come across none." Cedric sighed. "Merlin's Mushrooms this is going to be bad."

"What are the odds that we don't run into any more?" Sofia asked hopefully and Cedric gave her a dry look. "That bad huh?"

"Slim to none, I'd say." The silence around them became rather heavy. "Cedric?"

"Yes princess?" Sofia frowned to herself.

"What do you think is going on with your mother's ring? Who would take it?"

"There's many people in the world that would want a ring with those abilities. The weird part is, no one really knows the ring is that powerful. There's a... glamor of sorts on the ring to make it so it looks slightly different to people who aren't actively looking for it. My mother hasn't told anyone, aside from family, what it does. I can honestly say I don't know who knew enough about it to even steal it."

Sofia stopped walking, her body felt weak, like it was being drained of all life force. Cedric paused and turned around when he noticed she wasn't following him anymore. A wraith was behind her and he could tell it was feeding. Sofia's eyes hazed over and she dropped to her knees. Cedric felt shaken to his core and it took him a second to leap into action. He rushed the wraith, grabbing one of Sofia's arrows and jabbing it through its heart. When the wraith collapsed to the ground, so did Sofia.

* * *

Sofia felt fire all around her body like she was burning, she was so hot. She looked around the room but it was all a blur of orange and yellow. Flames danced around dangerously close to where she laid. Suddenly she saw a black blurred figure walking towards her. She could only see the silhouette but even sitting down she could tell that he was much taller than she was.

"Did you enjoy your sleep my darling? I hope the wraith didn't scare you too bad. I'd never let them hurt you." the voice was familiar. "Don't worry, I'll see you soon..." He purred. "But now you need to wake up."

* * *

"Sofia! Wake up!" Sofia's eyes shot opened and she shuttered and shoved Cedric away from her. "Are you alright?"

"I-I think I saw who stole the ring." She said uncertainly. She felt like what she saw wasn't a dream, it really did happen.

"Who was it?" Cedric asked quickly.

"I... don't know." She looked confused, but not nearly as much as Cedric.

"I thought you said-"

"I saw his outline. But I'm not sure. I don't know what I saw. Let's just get out of this cave." Sofia tried to push herself up and felt herself stumble. Cedric caught her arm and respected the fact that she needed to think quietly for a while.

When they arrived at the cave exit soon after they both shared an incredulous look.

"How did we not run into any more?" Sofia asked and Cedric glanced around, waiting for an ambush. It never came.

"As strange as it sounds, the shrieks ceased after you'd fallen unconscious."

"Hm..." Sofia pursed her lips. "In... my dream or vision or whatever it was, the man told me he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Maybe it was his doing?" Cedric frowned, not liking the thought of this mystery man keeping Sofia out of trouble, it could potentially mean that Cedric was a target for being eliminated if the guy thought he was a threat to whatever he thought him and Sofia had.

"I wonder why that is. Let's just try to get this maze done and over with. It's a little over a half mile this way." Cedric stopped his light spell and put his wand in his pocket and both continued the trudge.

* * *

At the very entrance of the maze, there stood a sphynx. Cedric shared a look with Sofia and they both walked up to it.

"Before you enter, you must first prove you are worthy." It said slowly. Sofia gave a tentative smile.

"What is your riddle, sir?" It looked at her odd but continued.

" _I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation and I surround every place. What am I?_ " Cedric looked completely crestfallen.

"I suppose this is up to you princess. I'm not very good with puzzles." Sofia smiled at him and thought.

"Do you have an answer?" The sphynx asked and Sofia bit her lip.

"How many guesses do I get?" The sphinx frowned.

"I usually only give one, but I will be merciful and allow you two. One for each of you." He gave Cedric a look and Cedric took in a deep breath.

"God?" Cedric offered lamely and Sofia giggled.

"No that isn't right."

"Well, I told you I wasn't very good at this..." Cedric sighed.

"One more guess. Do you need to hear the riddle once more?" Sofia shook her head and looked up at the sky.

"Beginning of the end... end of time and space... essential- oh, the letter E?" Sofia offered and Cedric looked at her confused.

"What do you mean the letter-"

"Correct." Sofia smiled and Cedric looked even more confused.

"You can just... do all the riddles. I don't even know..." He shook his head incredulously and the sphinx let them pass.

"Excuse me, Mister sphinx. Do you think you could tell us what exactly is in the maze?"

"If you go the right way, you will come across more than one sphinx, but that is all I can say." Sofia smiled warmly at him.

"Thank you for that."

* * *

"I'm pretty sure we should go right here." Sofia insisted and Cedric shook his head.

"No, we went right at the last one, I don't want to get caught in another dead end!" Cedric was growing increasingly impatient. They'd been wondering around the maze for an hour and hadn't run into another sphynx and they've been to 14 dead ends so far.

"I don't appreciate you yelling at me..." Sofia said quietly and walked right despite Cedric's complaints.

They were met with another choice of straight or left. Sofia went straight without asking Cedric and Cedric frowned.

"Are we not consulting each other anymore?"

"I'm getting really tired of you berating me each time we run into a dead end so I'm just going to walk! I don't care if I get lost, eventually I'll find my way out!" Sofia snapped and Cedric pursed his lips and held his tongue.

Sofia barreled her way through the maze until she came across another dead end. She huffed but turned around and went the other way without a word. She finally got the result she wanted when not 10 minutes later, she came across another sphinx. She almost cried with relief and jogged over to it.

"Hello. It's getting rather late, don't you agree?" The sphinx said and Sofia glanced up at the sky. She hadn't noticed it was almost sundown. She was just on a mission. "I'm sure you aren't here for conversation... My riddle is _I have seas with no water, coasts with no sand, towns without people, and mountains without land. What am I?_ "

"A really terrible place to vacation..." Cedric mumbled to himself and Sofia stifled a giggle, the tension between the two dissipating instantly. She turned to him and gave him a smile and he smiled weakly back at her.

He felt terrible for arguing with her. He wanted to blame it on Malignant Falls but he wasn't sure if that's honestly what it was. He was happy to make her laugh though.

"Is that your final answer?" The sphinx asked and both turned to face it really quickly.

"No!" They shouted in unison.

"Then what is your answer?" Sofia was grumpy and tired and she wasn't sure why she was so happy to run into the maze when it was so late in the day. She should've camped out so her brain had enough time to think. They hadn't even eaten anything yet.

"Okay... so seas without water. Could be the letter C but that wouldn't make sense for the next part..." Sofia started to pace. "...towns without people..." She scratched her head and couldn't come up with the answer.

"A map." Cedric said meekly and Sofia turned to him amazed.

"A map?" She grinned. "That's brilliant. How did you even think of that?"

"A map is flat but it has pictures so..."

"Correct." Sofia ran to Cedric, hugging him tightly.

"I'm so proud of you." She laughed. "You guessed before me. I don't know that I would've come up with the answer. I'm so exhausted..." She shook her head and pulled away from Cedric with a sigh. Cedric cupped her cheek and she looked into his eyes.

"You always make me feel like more than I am." Cedric admitted softly and Sofia shook her head.

"Don't say that. You're amazing. Just because you don't see that doesn't mean it isn't true. And I'm grateful to know you, Cedric. You're one of the best people I know." Cedric hugged her tightly and let his chin rest on her shoulder. At that moment, it didn't matter the fights they had. What mattered was they were going to get through everything together.

He just hoped he didn't have to deal with the siren with her by his side.

* * *

Okay serious question! I honestly need answers for this because I don't know. Should this story continue after they break the curse or should I just let it end there?

Also! I want to write another Cedfia after this one is done but I'm unsure of the plot. Any ideas?


	9. Malignant Falls- MazeFlashback

This chapter was a bit unexpected because of the flashback I hadn't planned on writing, it just happened. So the siren will be next chapter!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It makes me very happy to read them. I can't believe I have 30 of them already! Really, from the bottom of my heart thank you.

I'm still thinking of the next story I'm writing, it could really be anything at this point. I kind of want an AU of the modern times with Sofia having a rich family but she's away at college with her own place and she runs into Cedric who does card tricks on the street trying to make ends meet. I don't know yet.

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter nine:**

Sofia's eyes burned with exhaustion the longer they walked on. Cedric wound up standing extremely close to her to offer her some support. They both stopped to eat some fruit a half an hour ago and now it was dark and trying to find where the maze turned was almost impossible. Sofia's face was scratched from stumbling into walls and Cedric's nose was bruised.

When Cedric looked at the sky he rubbed his eyes with sluggish fatigue. It was almost midnight and they were still walking around. They've been walking in the maze for nearly 6 hours.

"I don't think I can walk anymore..." Sofia was now dragging her feet and Cedric frowned and stopped walking.

He was tired too, true, but he knew he had more energy from his magic. He picked up Sofia bride style and she tried to argue but he knew soon enough she'd be sleeping. They couldn't stop in the maze, they had no idea what would happen if they did and in the maze his magic didn't work. He couldn't even summon a light.

True to his thought, within a few minutes, Sofia had passed out in his arms. For a while he just stopped there and stared at her in his arms with the slightest shadow of a smile on his face. She was beautiful. He felt his heart flutter when she made the tiniest noise in her sleep. Cedric knew he had it bad for her before, but sometimes it overwhelmed him how much he loved her.

* * *

Cedric walked for what felt like ever and actually was only about 20 more minutes before he stepped in front of the third sphinx. He wanted to sigh with relief but wasn't sure if he'd be able to answer the riddle alone.

" _What causes a sudden increase in heart rate, a loss of memory and overall brain function, but is not a drug?_ "

* * *

**Flashback**

Cedric stood in the throne room in front of King Roland listening to his plans for the arrival of King Magnus. He wanted to prove to that king that he had the best something at least. Cedric saving Sofia's life so many years ago only worked for so long before he started to brag about his royal sorcerer again and quite frankly, Roland was tired of hearing about it. So Cedric stood there, essentially listen to King Roland rant for forty minutes when he noticed something strange.

Cedric would quickly flicker his attention to the clock on the east wall before standing still again but he fidgeted as time went on. Roland wrote this off as him being impatient which he ignored but as he kept talking, Cedric almost looked... sad?

"Is there something else you'd rather be doing?" Roland eventually asked and Cedric's face turned bright red.

"N-no. That isn't it. You have my full attention." He insisted and Roland raised an eyebrow and eventually slumped in his throne.

"Cedric, you've worked for me for a very long time and you forget I even knew you as a child. I've seen you grow up, personally and just because I'm the king doesn't mean I don't notice that something is clearly bothering you." He deadpanned and if it were possible, Cedric looked even more embarrassed.

"Your majesty, it is nothing I promise. Please, continue." Roland frowned and continued to stare at Cedric, waiting. "I'm just working on a potion, is all and it's almost time for the next step. I didn't want to ruin it." Roland visibly relaxed.

"That's all? Why didn't you just say so?" Cedric smiled weakly and thought that was the end of it until, "What is the potion for?" Roland noticed the way Cedric shifted on his feet.

"It's for the princess' birthday." He said calmly and Roland was confused.

"Sofia?" Cedric nodded, and Roland noticed the flash of fondness on his face and the subtle smile. Cedric couldn't stop his heart from racing at the very sound of Sofia's name spoken. "Sofia's birthday is next month. Why would you be making her something now?"

"Well the potion actually takes 4 months to make." Cedric flushed and wished he could take that back.

"Wow, a potion that takes that kind of patience? What does it do?" Cedric really didn't want to tell the king but there wasn't much he could do. He took a deep breath and hoped the king couldn't tell how much effort he put into his daughter's 17th birthday, or at least read too much into it.

"It a potion that enchants a mirror of the caster's choosing. After the potion is doused on the mirror the recipient can view their memories, no matter how far back they go."

"Why would Sofia want to view her memories?" Roland asked, actually extremely interested.

"Well..." Cedric shuffled on his feet. "I don't want you to think this is anything against you, your highness, but Sofia mentioned in passing she was forgetting what her... biological father looked and sounded like. I figured if I could make this potion she could... see him again..." Cedric's face was completely red again and the expression on Roland's face softened.

"I had no idea you had such sentimentality to you, Cedric. That is very nice of you to do. I'm sure Sofia will love it. You should go tend to your potion. We can continue this later." Cedric bowed.

"Thank you your majesty." With that, Cedric scurried out of the room.

Roland continued to sit on the throne deep in thought. He stared at the exit of the throne room until Miranda walked in with a smile. The smile quickly dropped when she saw his pensive expression.

"What's wrong Rollie?" She asked and took her seat at her throne but positioned her body to face his.

"I have a... weird question." Miranda nodded at him to continue. "Do you think Cedric loves Sofia?" Miranda had the decency to look away in mock surprised.

"What? Why would you say..." She stopped mid sentence when she saw the look on his face. "Where is this question coming from?"

"I was just talking to him and... I don't know. The way he talked about her. He told me of the birthday present he's been working on for the past three months." Miranda's eyebrows shot up.

"Three months?"

"Yeah, but it takes 4 months to make so he still has another month." Roland said absentmindedly and continued to stare at the door. "So?"

"Rollie..." Miranda sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I never wanted to say something because I didn't want it to rub you the wrong way but I'm pretty sure Cedric is in love with Sofia." Roland's face hardened before the expression slowly melted away.

"And what of Sofia?"

"Does she love him?" Roland nodded and Miranda sighed. "I can't be sure because she hasn't outright said anything but yeah if I had to guess she is in love with him too. But this has been a long time coming. I had my suspicions about them from the beginning. Sofia is his only friend and the only person he's ever warmed up to. And Sofia will choose his company over anyone else's. I do hope this won't make you do anything rash, Rollie. If this will make Sofia happy, I don't see how I could get in the way." Roland continued to stay silent. "I just want you to think if you'd rather have Sofia marry a prince for the sake of forming an alliance of if you want her to have a chance at happiness, like us."

"But he's just so much older." Roland argued halfheartedly. A part of him already made up his mind but the other half just had so many questions.

"I can see how that would make you uncomfortable but there have been worse marriages in the world. Girls being betrothed at 13 to a 50 year old king. How will we say no to Sofia at 17 for loving someone 32? It just isn't our life to live, Rollie." Roland nodded slowly.

"He wants to make her a mirror so she can see her biological father again. It shows memories, even forgotten ones." He admitted a few moments later. Miranda's eyes widened and Roland turned to her with an expression that she could tell was one of self conflict. "How do I say no to that? Who else would do that for our daughter? For _his_ daughter?"

"You know what I think?" Miranda offered with a smile as she cupped his face tenderly. Roland looked at her, begging her for answers. "I think Cedric would make a fine Prince."

* * *

"Love." Cedric said softly, staring at Sofia in the light of the sphinx. When he looked back up, the sphinx was gone and it looked like an open field. He tentatively stepped out of the maze and smiled at the large space. He had some difficulty but when he finally got hold of his wand while juggling the weight of the princess, he summoned a tent for them to sleep in.

He didn't think it would be too bold to assume she wanted to sleep next to him.

* * *

Sofia woke up the next morning to the sound of light snores. When she opened her eyes she took in her surroundings, the tent from their first night. Cedric must've conjured one up. She looked to her side and a foot away was Cedric sleeping soundly. Sofia's heart ached with all the affection she felt for him.

For a while she sat up and just smiled at the sleeping figure. His shirt rode up a bit and his pants were a complete wrinkled wreck. His hair had seen much better days but she was sure hers did too. For that time that she watched him sleep she was sure she could do that for the rest of her life. She wanted to wake up next to him every morning and go to sleep by his side. There wasn't a thing about him that she didn't love.

She wondered what her parents would think if she ever built up the courage to tell them. Not that she would, at least without figuring out if he felt the same way. It would be embarrassing from multiple ends if she admitted to her parents she loved him and got permission to marry him only to find out that he only thought of her as his apprentice.

She wanted to lay down next to him and have his arms wrap around her body and just feel the heat emanating from him and feel his heartbeat thumping against her back. She wanted him so bad it hurt. For years, she brushed it off as just a schoolgirl crush but she couldn't do that anymore. The thought of him being with someone else was enough to make her heart wretch with pain. She wondered if he felt the same. She wondered if he stayed up at night and hated the thought of her parents marrying her off to some prince from a different land to form an alliance.

Cedric finally stirred and Sofia quickly pretended to do anything other than watch him sleep.

"Good morning, Princess." Cedric's accent was stronger when it was thick with exhaustion. She smiled to herself.

"Good morning, Mister Cedric." She turned to face him and he rubbed his eyes. "How did you sleep?"

"I felt like this was the first time I slept well since we started the journey. I think that is because the amount of exhaustion I felt." Sofia blushed, remembering the night. He had picked her up and carried her and she just fell asleep.

"I'm so sorry-" Cedric held up his hand.

"None of that. We're out of the maze. Be thankful. Now we have to deal with a siren." Sofia's eyes widened and she poked her head out of the tent. Sure enough the maze exit was a few feet the other way.

"You answered the last riddle? What was it?" Sofia asked excitedly and Cedric quickly exited the tent.

"Bugger if I remember." He said coolly and Sofia frowned at the answer but didn't press on. When they were both out of the tent, Cedric made it disappear and Sofia handed him some jerky and she munched on an apple.

"Let's go face the siren now." She decided and Cedric followed a few paces behind her, honestly dreading dealing with sirens. Even if it appeared as someone other than Sofia, its magic would not be lost on him and he would probably completely fall under it's spell. He liked to think he could deal with it but honestly, he was so starved for Sofia's attention he just might let it drown him.

* * *

This is your second to last chance to guess on the villain! But I will warn you, I don't know if it's next chapter or the following, there might be slight noncon. You'll find out why eventually.

Let me know what part of the adventure has been your favorite so far! I'd love to know!


	10. Malignant Falls- Lover's Lake

It's the chapter everyone's been waiting for! Lover's Lake! I'm happy I finally got to write this chapter. This one and the one that reveals the bad guy have been my most anticipated chapters ever.

Anyway, I'm loving the reviews, thank you for them. Without further ado, heres the story!

* * *

 **Chapter ten:**

The walk to Lover's Lake was a lot longer than Cedric thought it was. He felt his heart in his throat the entire time. Sofia walked calmly next to him. She fixed her hair at some point and he noticed all of the scratches down her arms. They were slight, but he was close enough to see them.

Sofia had a look of determination on her face and he found that admirable. Here they were stomping into some crazy person's land demanding something back with (in his eyes) little to no power. Sofia had trained, but most of her training wasn't combat. He liked to teach her other things, conjuring and healing techniques. Sometimes she surpassed him in those spells, but he wouldn't admit it.

The air was humid now, he figured they were close to the lake, finally. The maps he read made it look like once they were out of the maze, they'd be dumped into Lover's Lake. That was not the case.

They came passed the foliage and pushed the last of the brush out of the way. They stood in awe at the sight. When Cedric thought of Lover's Lake he always thought it to be depressing. With naked trees and gray stones everywhere and a deep blue lake. He thought it would be barren of beauty with the history it had. This was nothing like he thought.

Lover's Lake was on a plateau section of the mountain. There was still more to go up, but he was pretty sure they had to go down. Beautiful trees enclosed the lake, bountiful with vibrant green leaves. The lake glittered with the reflection of the sun. There was a bed of sand at the base of the lake, giving it almost a beach feel. Lilies grew ubiquitously, decorating the edges of the lake with beautiful colors.

There was a large boulder off to the right side in the lake, behind it another. That was the only blemish the lake had. Cedric walked out first and kicked off his shoes and felt the warm sand on his feet. He'd been so dirty, not even magic could help him clean off. Sofia was right next to him, tugging up her pants so they wouldn't get wet in the shallows of the lake.

"This is so beautiful." Sofia awed and Cedric could only nod. "How do we get across the lake?"

"We need to ask the siren." Cedric's heart raced a mile a minute at that point. His eyes scanned the lake for the figure they were looking for. He needed to warn Sofia. It was just so hard. He felt like there was a knot in his throat preventing him from talking. "Sofia I need to-"

"Look!" Sofia pointed to around where the boulders were and Cedric saw the ripples of the otherwise still waters.

"Merlin's Mushrooms..." Cedric squeaked. "Sofia-"

"Who are you?!" The voice boomed and Sofia saw a figure climb up the rock and stand there menacingly. The woman's figure was tall and slender, it looked like she was naked, but honestly they couldn't tell, she was covered in so much seaweed.

"We wish to cross the lake please!" Sofia said, bless her, she was so brave.

"Why should I assist you and that... cod-piece." She spat and Cedric flushed.

"Well that was awfully rude." He mumbled and Sofia ignored him.

"We're trying to get what was stolen from us. To do that, we need to cross your lake." The siren scoffed and walked off the rock and stood still on the water. Sofia watched amazed as she slowly made her way across the water. "Will you help us?"

"Let's find out if this imp here is worth helping." Cedric gulped and looked at Sofia desperately as if she could help prevent his impending doom.

"Sofia—"

"Cedric you'll be fine. I'm sure you can withstand her seduction." Sofia smiled good-naturedly at him and he turned to face the siren with a look of guilt.

"Please-" He started and she paused and laughed.

"Oh that's too cute." She grinned deviously and Sofia's eyebrow raised.

"What?" The water swirled around the siren in an almost peaceful manner. Sofia watched amazed, seeing her body glow faintly and the seaweed fall off in clumps. Her body slowly materialized...

Until Sofia was standing there looking at herself.

Sofia gaped like a fish and slowly turned to Cedric whose face couldn't possibly be redder, even his neck and ears were crimson.

"Cedric...?"

"Sofia- I-I..." He pursed his lips, frowned, and quickly looked away from her, trying to save himself from the embarrassment. This could not get worse.

He looked back at the siren, Sofia's beautiful face mirrored on the siren's. Her body was barely covered, just enough to cover the important parts. She sauntered over closer to Cedric, purposefully moving her hips more than necessary, thriving in the starved look in Cedric's eyes.

"Mister Cedric." She purred, Christ even her voice sounded the same. She was within touching distance of Cedric, but didn't reach for him. She pouted her lips and looked at him through her lashes. "Mister Cedric..." She whispered and eyed his lips.

Sofia stood, gobsmacked and unable to move. She was stuck right where she stood and wasn't sure if that was the siren's doing or her own. She watched Cedric's embarrassed face melt away and be replaced with something almost like fondness. Her mind raced faster than it had the entire trip.

She was Cedric's desire? When did that happen? When did she start being more to him than just an annoying little girl? Sofia was practically hyperventilating. She loved Cedric for longer than she could admit but she always assumed he didn't feel the same. Now she stood with him gawking over someone who looked like her. Her emotions twisted inside her and she couldn't pinpoint if she was feeling jealousy, happiness, anger, surprise. She couldn't stop her thoughts quick enough to actually know what they were.

The siren's arm reached to Cedric's face and Sofia's eyes widened watching him lean into her touch. The siren grinned; Sofia wondered if Cedric could see the evil twinkle in her eye. She tried to speak but once again, she found herself unable.

"Mister Cedric, don't you want me? We can be together." Her face was so close to his, Sofia felt the pit of her stomach twist with jealousy. "I don't care about any princes, or dukes. I just want you, Cedric." Sofia's eyes burned with tears. Is this what Cedric had dreamt of her saying? Why didn't he tell her?! She could say all those things and more! "You're worth more to me than any jewel. I've wanted to be with you my whole life. You can be with me, forever. Just follow me."

Sofia's tears rolled down her face when she saw Cedric take the first step. She wondered if part of him let her say these things because he thought it was the only time he'd ever hear them. The thought broke Sofia's heart.

"I always believed in you, Cedric. You know that. Even with the evil in your heart, I loved you still. I love you Cedric, so much. With all of me."

She led him in another step. Sofia's fists were clenched and tears were streaming down her face. She wanted to scream. The siren flickered her eyes to Sofia, almost like an apology but quickly fixated on Cedric and she brought him in another step.

"Talk to me, Cedric. What do you want?" The siren whispered seductively. Cedric tilted his head to the side.

"I want to wake up every day next to you, Sofia." He responded softly, the siren goaded him to continue and he took another step in the water. It was at his knees. "I want you to love me as I love you. I want to worship you, do everything for you. Whatever I can do to be worthy of even looking at you. Sometimes I have to call you princess to remind me of your standing, to tell myself you're worth so much more than me." Sofia hiccupped on her sobs. "I want to prove to you every day how important you are to me. To everyone. I want to prove to everyone that I can be worthy of you. But most importantly, I want to prove that to you. I'll do anything for you, Sofia."

"Then walk deeper." The siren gave him a sickly sweet smile. "Walk deeper and we can be together for eternity." She pulled him in to his waist. "Tell me how much you love me, Cedric. I'll never tire of hearing it. Tell me how you fell in love with me." The siren gave Sofia another look.

Sofia couldn't handle it. Her heart broke at seeing the man she loved get closer and closer to suicide, all while admitting how much he loved her. Sofia tried so hard to fight against whatever spell she was under to save Cedric but she couldn't move. Her mind screamed, desperate to get his attention. She wanted him to know she loved him too. She loved him so much.

 _Cedric please don't die. Please don't die on me._ She couldn't catch her breath she was crying so hard, her vision was blurred, almost blind on her tears. She couldn't breathe, it was like no matter how hard she tried, her lungs burned and wouldn't take in enough oxygen. If Cedric died, she didn't know how she would continue on with the trip. Why did she think they could do this? She knew Cedric was starved for affection, she could tell. But watching him just willingly walk into the water with the siren baffled her.

"I love you Sofia. I've been in love with you for years. I never felt worth your time but every day you came to my workshop. You were my first and only friend. No one ever wanted to be my friend but there you were, little 8 year old nuisance bothering me, saying my name wrong, annoying me. But every day you got deeper in my heart. I fell in love with you when you were 16. I know, it sounds weird, and I never thought of you indecently, you were too young. You're still too young for me, but I couldn't help falling in love with you. I knew I was in love with you on my 31st birthday when you stopped the king from forcing me to do a magic show for princess Amber. You showed me how much you cared by taking care of me that day and showing me what a birthday is supposed to feel like."

"Did you want to kiss me?"

"Yes, I almost did. But... I didn't think you could love me. So I didn't." Sofia wanted to scream ' _OF COURSE I LOVE YOU, CEDRIC!_ ' but was paralyzed in place. Cedric was in the water to his shoulders now, he didn't seem to mind, his eyes never looked away from the siren's. The last thing he'd see was her face and it broke Sofia's heart to stand there and let it happen.

"A few more steps and we can be together forever. I won't be a princess and you won't be a sorcerer." She promised and it looked like Cedric came to a halt.

"What do you mean?"

"Where we're going there will be no need for such things." Cedric's brow furrowed and he shook his head.

"No. Sofia, you love that I'm a sorcerer." He stated calmly, confused. "Don't you?"

"Oh. Yes, of course I do, Ceddy." That deepened his confusion. Sofia rejoiced in the sudden apprehension of Cedric.

"You don't call me Ceddy. Only my mother does. What's going on?" He looked down. "Why am I in water? Oh Merlin's Mushrooms! You're not Sofia! You damn siren, let me go!" The spell on Sofia was released and she collapsed to the ground covering her mouth. New tears falling down her face for a completely different reason. She was so relieved she could hardly breathe. "Sofia!" She heard him rush out of the water and he quickly made his way to her, but stumbled once he reached the sand and crawled the rest of the way. "Oh Sofia! I-I'm so sorry. I-I wasn't thinking and you probably hate me and- Poseidon's pumpkins, Sofia I don't know—"

Sofia shut him up by throwing herself at him and burying her face in his wet shirt.

"Cedric I was so worried! I thought- I thought you we-were going to die!" She sobbed and Cedric looked down at her, amazed. His arm slowly reached behind her and he rubbed her back.

"Don't be worried about me, princess-" Sofia snapped her head up.

" _Don't_ call me princess!" She hugged him closer. "Cedric you're worth so much to me. I don't care if I'm a princess and you're not a prince. You're my sorcerer and I'd rather have that than anything else any day."

"Sofia... What... what are you saying?" his expression was a mixture of confusion and hope.

"I love you Cedric. I love you so much." She kissed his shoulder and squeezed him closer to her, feeling desperate after almost losing him. "I don't want you to ever think you're not worth me. You're the best thing that ever happened in my life." She pulled away to look at him in the face. He saw how her face was red from crying and her eyes were pink from the tears. He never wanted to see her cry but even after she cried, she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on.

"I love you too, Sofia." He whispered against her lips. "Can... Can I kiss you?" She laughed through tears and nodded her head.

"You don't have to ask. Of course you can." He wasted no time and pressed his lips against hers, as if she'd revoke the right if he waited too long.

His fingers frantically laced through her hair and he held her head steady in placed. Her hands cupped his jaw, giving her more power in the kiss. Cedric felt too many emotions to single out what each of them were but he could finally admit that holding Sofia' in his arms, he was happy. And if he happened to let a few tears run down his face during the kiss, he knew she wouldn't judge him.

"Sofia." He stroked the sides of her head. "Can you... tell me again?"

"I love you, Cedric." She stared deep in his eyes and the way she said it sounded like a promise. One that Cedric was certain he didn't deserve but for once in his life he wasn't going to screw it up.

"I love you, Sofia." He gave her a chaste kiss on the lips and pulled away. He had to stop staring into her eyes or he'd never get anything done. He pulled away from her completely, feeling cold by the sudden absence of her heat. "Can we cross now?"

The siren crossed her arms, no longer looking like Sofia. She sighed and waved her arm and a boat rose to the top of the water and the water poured out like a waterfall.

"You did it, Cedric." Sofia grinned at him and Cedric returned the grin with a less confident smile. He wondered what would happen to Sofia if he didn't realize the siren wasn't her. It was strange, he went in knowing that the siren was going to turn into Sofia, yet he still treated her as if he didn't know. He wondered why, but not enough to ask. He helped Sofia climb into the boat and followed after her, he wasn't sure what came next, he only knew she would be with him for whatever followed. That was good enough for him.

Although, he didn't much like the smirk the siren gave him as they floated away.

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The next chapter is going to be a bit... sexual, so there's a warning. I can't believe I started writing this 2 weeks ago and it's almost 30,000 words, thats pretty neat.

Did you all like the chapter? Is there something you feel needs to be addressed? Let me know! Can't wait to hear from you!


	11. Malignant Falls- Conflict Canoe

Ok honestly I was done with this chapter last night and I'm mostly done with the next chapter but I didn't want to update too quickly. When I do that I don't get much feedback.

Anyway, I hope you know I had to put some angst into the story so that's how this chapter came to be.

 **CHAPTER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SLIGHT NON-CON. You've been warned**

* * *

 **Chapter eleven:**

As the boat drifted off further and further, Cedric got increasingly more confused. The lake was much too big to be going on this far and he couldn't see the shore anymore. Sofia seemed to be getting unnerved as well.

Suddenly, Cedric hunched over in pain. His head felt like it was being drilled into by something sharp. Sofia was by his side in an instant.

"Are you okay?!" She cried, but he continued to whither in pain. He was holding his head in his hands so tightly she thought he was going to hurt himself.

"Can't..." He growled and shook his head violently. He was tugging at his hair, trying to regain control of himself but found that impossible. The world started to fade and he watched the panicked look on Sofia's face before he completely lost consciousness.

Cedric stood in a dark space, nothing illuminated by light, only himself. He looked around trying to find an answer to what was going on but couldn't.

"Hello?" His voice echoed and a few seconds later he was greeted by... another version of himself?

This version of him was dressed more formally, white undershirt, black vest and black pants. His hair was slicked back, making his bangs blend in with the rest of his hair so it looked like silver streaks instead of the simple bangs that fell on his face normally.

"Hello, Cedric." The duplicate smirked at him rather hungrily.

"Who are you?"

"I'm you. But..." The duplicate circled around him, eyeing him like prey. "I'm the darker half of you. Yes I know you may be wondering how there can be a darker half of you, but trust me when I say you're the lighter half. All those evil impulses..." He chuckled, "that's me. And I am _so_ glad to finally be in control. There are some things you wouldn't dream of doing, or at least admit to."

"What do you mean...?" Cedric looked around, worried. "What are you going to do?"

"Sofia is a pretty girl, isn't she?" Cedric's face twisted it in anger.

"Don't you _dare_ touch her!" He snarled and grabbed the duplicate by the shirt.

"But I will." He said softly and shoved Cedric to the ground easily and waved his hand. Cedric looked up to see... Sofia? It was like he was watching her on a screen of some sort. "This is what you're seeing through your eyes right now... But you only get to watch, because I'm in charge now." He vanished and Cedric frantically jumped to where he stood trying to grab him but he was already gone.

"Don't you dare touch her!"

"Cedric? Are you ok?" Sofia asked softly when she saw him begin to stir.

"Oh yes, princess..." He slowly met her eyes and slicked back his hair, a look she'd never seen on him before. "I've never been better." He smirked devilishly and his eyebrow was raised, Sofia thought it would look pretty sexy if it weren't so terrifying.

"Cedric...?" She pushed herself back, trying to show him that he unnerved her. She knew he'd never do anything to intentionally hurt or scare her.

"Calm down, princess." He purred scooting closer to her. "No need to be shy around me. You love me after all..." His hand cupped her cheek and slowly stroked down her neck. She shivered.

"Cedric... Please stop. You're scaring me." His smirk widened and he pushed her to the floor of the boat and climbed on top of her. She tried to push away from him but he pinned her wrists and pressed his pelvis against her, stopping her from moving her lower body. She continued to push against him, only now realizing how much stronger he was.

"Oh please, princess. Struggle, it makes it more exciting don't you think?" His voice was rough and his accent seemed thicker somehow. She knew this wasn't her Cedric but she had no idea what happened to her Cedric.

He leaned in close and let his tongue lick up her neck and he bit her earlobe. Sofia shuttered, getting goosebumps all over her body. She was terrified and what was even scarier was her body reacting positively to it.

"Please, I don't want this." She winced as he bit down at the base of her neck.

"Don't worry, princess... I won't take up too much of your time." He chuckled and slid his hands up her shirt.

"No! No stop it!" She tried to move her hands since he let go of them but with a quick glance, her hands were pinned by magic. "You can do wandless magic?"

"Oh princess, I can do much more than that."

"STOP! LEAVE SOFIA ALONE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! DON'T TOUCH HER!" Cedric screamed, his voice on the brink of breaking. He didn't know how to get him to stop. He wasn't going to listen to a voice in his head. How would he save Sofia?

Was this really his evil side? He found it hard to believe he'd ever force himself on Sofia, no matter how evil he was. But now wasn't the time to think about his moral compass and spend more time thinking about how he was going to get control over his body again.

Sliding his hand into his pocket, he found his wand. He tried to think of spells to cast but none was for his exact weird position. He pointed his wand up and thought of the first spell that came to mind.

"GLACIES SPIRITUS!" A jagged blast of ice emitted from his wand.

Sofia whimpered at his touch and jerked her body against his trying to free herself but only felt his body react positively to that. All the movement of her lower body seemed to make him hard. Sofia's face flushed and she stopped squirming as much, not wanting to excite him more. She just stared at him, pleading.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked softly and he grinned with all of his teeth but it was the same evil grin from before.

"I want you. Is that so hard to imagine? I want you and I'm going to have you." His fingers toyed with the lip of her pants and her eyes widened.

"Please don't-"

"Shut up!" He hissed and her eyes watered, watching him yank down her pants. "Fuck!" He clenched his head and fell back. He held his head in his arms and shook it like crazy. "Cedric if you think you can stop me, you're sadly mistaken! I will have this damn princess... fuck!" He hunched over holding his head tighter.

"Cedric!" Sofia cried, still unable to move her arms. "Cedric please! You can fight this! Whatever it is!"

"Shut up, girl!" He hissed and his eyes flashed a deep red color. "You're mine. Cedric won't be able to save you from that. He's not strong enough. I'M THE STRONGER CEDRIC." He bellowed and knelt by Sofia and wrapped his fingers around her neck, not enough to actually choke her, just enough to scare her. "If only you knew the things I've already done to you..." He chuckled, letting his hand stroke down her chest. Before he got to her breasts, he was hit with another sharp pain, almost like a freezing sensation that had him double over in pain.

"This is getting old, Cedric." He panted. "The more you struggle, the more aggressive I get with the princess. Or maybe I should tell her about all the mean things you've done to her over the years." The toothy smirk on his face was terrifying and he centered his attention to Sofia. "Oh that got you quiet, didn't you? You don't want Sofia to know all the times you were naughty? Well, Sofia, have I got some stories to tell you about your dear Cedric-ow! Do you really think that will stop me?!"

"What are you talking about?" Sofia questioned quietly and that elicited a grin from him.

"When you first got to the castle, Cedric had no interest in you. In fact, the only reason he actually was nice to you-Cedric, you can stop that, I'm going to tell her anyway." He winced really hard and evened his breathing. Whatever Cedric was doing didn't look pleasant. "He... well... we, really, wanted to steal that lovely amulet of yours to take over the kingdom." Sofia frowned. "We planned to enslave the kingdom but especially your father." He sneered. "King Roland would be our greatest pet." Sofia felt him get hard against her leg and he chuckled. "Just thinking about it excites me. What about you, princess? I think you would've made a lovely slave. Especially now." He purred, eyeing her.

Sofia never felt more naked than she did now. She knew Cedric had a fascination with her amulet but she didn't know how deep it ran. Was it true? He wanted to enslave her family?

"I see you don't believe me." He almost pouted. "Very well, I suppose I'll have to provide examples." He winced. "You really don't want her to know about your dirty deeds, Cedric? Well I guess I can tell her after..." He grabbed her pants and yanked at them until they were off and Sofia stared at him in horror.

"Please don't. Please." She whimpered and he chortled.

"Cedric doesn't care enough to have stopped this, princess. Get over it." Sofia squeezed her eyes closed and felt his fingers slip under the sides of her underwear but the moment she thought he was going to yank them down, he didn't.

She opened her eyes and he had his teeth bared angrily and his eyes shut tightly. He looked to be in a great deal of pain. He stumbled back and shook his head angrily, his breathing was erratic.

Sofia felt like she watched him struggle with himself for hours, who knows how long it had been? He finally stopped flailing around as much and just stared down at the boat, eyes vacant. Sofia held her breath and he blinked a few times. She was the brown hue come back to his eyes and he rubbed his face and looked up at her, in tears.

"Sofia, I-I'm so so sorry." He shakily grabbed her pants and handed them to her. When he noticed she wasn't making an attempt to grab them he remembered her hands were bound and he quickly unbound them. "I'm so sorry." He repeated. "I-I would never hurt you." Sofia slowly put on her pants, not looking at him. "Sofia..."

"I don't want to talk right now." Sofia said quietly and looked out at the water. Cedric bit his lip and tried to stop himself from blubbering like a fool. He breathed in and out with extremely shaky breaths and tried his best not to look at Sofia, feeling unworthy, especially now.

They sat in the boat for a while, seemingly going nowhere. Cedric was going crazy in the silence and noticed that no matter how far they went, they were still in the middle of nowhere. He was starting to wonder if it was enchanted. He looked at Sofia, his heart breaking and he choked back more tears and quickly looked away from her. Would she ever forgive him?

"What did he mean?" Sofia finally asked. "What did he mean when he said he'd give examples? What dirty deeds?" She looked at him and saw how scared he looked at the question. He shook his head.

"Sofia please-"

"Just answer me, I think I deserve that." Cedric frowned and bit his lip.

"Okay... When you were 8 years old... you needed help studying for a sorcery test, do you remember?" Sofia nodded and he sighed. "I... I was working on an invisibility potion. I wanted to use it myself to turn invisible and steal your amulet." Sofia looked confused.

"But you didn't, you turned Clover invisible." She recalled and Cedric gave her a small smile.

"Exactly. I couldn't do it. Don't you remember how you helped me that day? You poured a potion on yourself to prove to your father I could do magic and it worked. That day everyone was so proud of me and when it came time to steal your amulet, I couldn't do it." Sofia stayed quiet. Cedric hoped it was a good thing.

"Were there other times?" She wound up asking. He could lie, but he knew she'd see right through it. He sighed. "There were."

"Yes..."

"How many?" He shrugged lamely.

"I can't count them all, Sofia." Sofia felt angry, hurt, betrayed. She had a tight frown on her face and couldn't think straight. Her heart hurt and she just wanted to scream.

"Do you even love me or is that a lie too?" Cedric stared up at her, flabbergasted. He quickly got up and knelt down before her. She shied away from him and he didn't want to show how much that hurt.

"Sofia, I would never lie about loving you. I admit, I was evil. I don't want you to think I was someone good but you changed that about me. I wanted to be better. I fell in love with you but even before then I stopped my quest to steal your amulet. I wanted power, I felt inadequate. All my life I'd been in my father's shadow and no one thought I was good enough. You did, Sofia. I knew that from the day you walked in and asked for magic lessons. You were the only one that cared about me and honestly that made me want the amulet more. You were a princess, I didn't deserve to be your friend. I wanted to take over the kingdom, but I wanted you there too and I know that sounds lame but that's how I felt. When I was a king, I could be your friend and wouldn't feel like I was a liar.

"Eventually, I grew to realize that in my quest to gain your amulet, I was only hurting you. What would come of it when I actually took over the kingdom? You wouldn't want to be my friend anymore. So I stopped that silly dream and focused on being a better sorcerer. You wanted to be with me all the time, every day. And I thrived in it. Then I fell in love with you, the sweet Sofia, she grew up into a beautiful woman and I will admit, for a moment I wanted to be king. I wanted to court you and have no one say a word about it. But I knew you wouldn't like that. I just assumed I would never be with you and it hurt but nothing would make me go back to how I was. I was miserable. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Sofia." Sofia stared at him long and hard.

She watched him, on his knees in front of her beg for forgiveness but she wasn't so sure it was necessary. She wanted to be angry with him for all he did. In fact, she tried to. Seeing those big brown eyes, his bangs fall on his forehead the way they always did, the tear tracks down his face. They all just reminded her of her love for him.

"Who was that person that took over your body?" She wound up asking and he breathed out slowly.

"Apparently he was my evil half but... Sofia I need you to hear this and I need you to know this as a complete fact. Sofia, I've never ever thought about forcing myself on you. No matter the evil deeds I've done or thought of doing, hurting you was never one of them. Please, just know that." Cedric still knelt in front of her and she was still shaken up over everything but she couldn't not tell him she forgave him. Especially when she already forgave him. He didn't need to be distracted more. If she needed to talk to him about whatever happened, she could do that when they didn't have to save the kingdom.

"I forgive you, Cedric." She said quietly and Cedric's eyes met hers. The relief in them was palpable and he shakily reached out, slow enough for Sofia to move if she wanted, and took her hands in his. He brought them to his mouth and kissed them.

"I promise to be a better man for you Sofia. If you still want me, that is." The anguish on his face truly broke her heart and she gave him a weak smile and knelt down next to him and slowly enveloped him in a hug. He hesitantly hugged back, waiting for her to shove him away, but she never did. She leaned onto the hug and Cedric had never felt more relieved to smell lavender in his life.

* * *

This chapter will make sense next chapter.

Anyone care to guess why this happened?


	12. Malignant Falls- The Villain

HOLLA HOLLA, YO!

Oh Shit, I didn't think I'd get to this point so quickly but I couldn't think of another part of Malignant Falls to make it seem like it wasn't part of a childrens adventure novel.

In any case, this chapter you find out the villain behind everything and I AM SO EXCITED. I've had this planned since chapter two.

Thanks for your reviews!

* * *

 **Chapter twelve:**

When they broke apart, they looked around and saw the boat was sitting at the shore of the other side of the lake. Looking back, they could easily see the side they left from.

"I don't understand." Sofia said confused and stepped out of the canoe. "How are we here?"

"It's rare people get passed the lake..." Cedric and Sofia looked up and saw the siren again, arms crossed. "What's even more rare is them getting passed the boat, or canoe ride to the other side. The canoe entices self-conflict, strong enough to create a lot of tension and almost impossible to come back from. You were already on this side but you were charmed to think you were in the middle of nowhere. He was taken over with how evil he thinks he is and created another persona, most times people can't break through that persona but it wasn't him who broke the charm. It was your forgiveness. Most people wouldn't forgive someone for what they'd do to them in the canoe and they either kill themselves in the water or they starve to death."

"So... was that not really me?" Cedric asked, desperately and the siren shifted her weight to the other side and sighed.

"Not really... It takes the one thing you have most self-conflict with and it amplifies it to make it worse and forces you to sit and watch all your nightmares become reality. This usually makes the person suffering from the doubt give up and allow their body to do whatever, wallowing in guilt." The siren spat the last part. "It takes a lot of heart to forgive someone for hurting you. You're the only person I've seen do that."

Cedric beamed at Sofia and she smiled shyly.

"And..." the siren looked uncomfortable. "You're one of the two people that have ever broken out of the spell. So good on you." Sofia gave an encouraging pat to Cedric's arm and he smiled at her.

"So what do we do now? No one has really gotten passed this point for us to know what comes next." Sofia said calmly and the siren stared passed her and pointed.

"Follow that trail. That's all I can say." She vanished into the water and Sofia and Cedric stood quietly staring at the beginning of the trail. The trees leaned into one another almost making the perfect arch, it seemed almost inviting.

"Sofia, I just want you to know, that I will spend the rest of my life making up to you all the bad things I've done." Cedric said quietly and Sofia looked at him, he didn't like the slight apprehension he saw in her eyes since his evil half took over and he hoped it was something that even though she forgave, she could forget. He'd never hurt her. And he prayed that she would learn that eventually.

"Cedric, I'm ok." She said evenly and started walking towards the path entrance, Cedric following shortly after.

The path they followed just felt like a winding trail with no actual destination. The sun was going down and it was getting harder to see. At some point Sofia and Cedric started holding hands. She was sure he was the one to reach out first and even with everything they went through, she still liked the comfort of having him there. He made her feel safe, usually. He squeezed her hand randomly; almost like he was reassuring her and it made her feel warm.

Taking another step forwards, she felt her foot step through the ground and was no sooner later falling down a hole. Cedric, whom was holding her hand, was dragged down with her. Sofia let out a scream and Cedric yelped. They hit the bottom and somehow Cedric was on the bottom and Sofia landed on top of him.

"I'm so sorry!" Sofia cried and Cedric gave her a weak smile.

"I'm just happy I didn't land on you, Sofia." She got off him and helped hoist him to his feet.

"It's so warm..." Sofia noted and started walking downwards. Cedric quickly followed after her.

Sofia covered her nose and mouth after smelling something foul. Cedric clamped his nose too, scowling. The more they walked, the stronger the smell got and the hotter it became.

Cedric looked around and noticed the rocks change. What was more concerning was the way the rocks changed. Using a lot of stones in potion making, Cedric's eye for rocks was more developed than most peoples. When he looked at the rock formation around him he saw that it was mostly made of extrusive igneous rocks, moreover, obsidian rocks. This made no sense since they fell through the ground and were now in what seemed like a cave. Obsidian rocks were created from rapid cooling, there's no way they could cool rapidly inside a cave, so how were the cave walls adorned with these? Wait... igneous rocks?

Sofia stopped walking once she noticed she was mostly dragging Cedric along with her and turned to face him. He was still lost in thought, staring at the walls.

"Cedric?" He gently pulled his hand out of hers and walked to the wall and rubbed the wall. "Are you okay?"

"Merlin's mushrooms, Sofia, I don't know how I didn't catch on earlier. We're on our way to a volcano. But what I don't know is why... why the walls are obsidian. That's an extrusive rock. I should be seeing intrusive rocks..."

"What are you talking about?" Sofia asked and joined him by the wall.

"Obsidian is an igneous rock. Igneous rocks are formed by lava, or magma. Magma in this case since it never reached the surface. But how..." Cedric tapped on the wall more, narrowing his eyes.

Cedric followed the cave wall looking for any type of answer, Sofia quickly walking behind him. Cedric took out his wand and mumbled a few things but never actually cast a spell.

"This is all wrong..." He leaned on the wall and it shattered, pushing him through to the other side. Sofia hopped through the hole in the wall and helped Cedric up. "What in gods name..." He looked around and they were out of the cave in beautiful daylight. "What is going on?!" He quickly raised up and frantically looked around.

"Wasn't the sun just setting not too long ago?" Sofia wondered and Cedric looked at her, his face twisted in annoyance.

"Yes it was! Now what is going on, nothing is making any damn sense!" Cedric stomped around trying to find anything that made sense and gave up when he came across another slab of rock. He dropped to his knees and let his hand rest on the rock formation.

"What?" Cedric broke a piece off and held it up to her.

"This is granite, Sofia. It forms _below_ the surface but here it is, _literally_ in the middle of nowhere." Cedric rose up and kicked the rocks and they all crumbled. "What?"

As the rocks fell, they turned to powder, disappearing in the wind. Sofia was by his side watching the rock break down in amazement. When the entire formation was gone, it left behind a gaping hole in the ground. Cedric's head tilted to the side and he pointed his wand down the hole.

"Lumen magnum." They both leaned in to the hole trying to get a good view and Cedric coughed, the horrible smell was back. "Poseidon's pumpkins, it's brimstone." He said, covering his nose again.

"Let's check it out." Sofia smiled at him and before he could say no, she jumped down the hole. Cedric groaned and shortly followed her.

They both slid to the bottom and landed with a loud _thud_. Cedric pulled out his wand, praying the fall didn't break it and murmured another _lumen magnum_ and the area was lit. Him and Sofia raised to their feet and wondered around the small cove curiously. What Cedric found to be most interesting was a path made entirely of rhyolite that led to a dark tunnel. Him and Sofia shared a look and proceeded down the path. The deeper they got, the warmer and tighter it became. The overhead got shorter and shorter until they both had to crawl. The confined space was really giving Cedric anxiety but since he was leading, he pushed through as fast as he could to not have Sofia stuck in the crawlspace.

They crawled until their knees were bleeding and their hands were blistered. The ground got increasingly warmer and it was harder to breathe. Cedric was having a hard time keeping his cool when he just wanted to scream about the claustrophobic freak out he was having.

Sofia's arms were getting sore and it was really hard to see the light from Cedric's wand since there was literally no extra space other than what was needed for them to get through. She wondered if they picked the right path, but despite not really liking it, Cedric seemed pretty adamant of the route they were taking.

Cedric winced at the sudden burst of light as they rounded a corner. It was a bright orange glow and it emanated heat like Cedric has never felt before. When he got to the edge of the path, his eyes widened.

"Merlin's Mushrooms..." He pushed himself out of the crawlspace and dropped five feet to the ledge. Sofia was now able to see what had Cedric so dejected.

They were in a volcano. The magma flowed slowly in a pool beneath them, swirling and popping angrily. Sofia had never been one to sweat often but she was just dripping with sweat now. Cedric folded up his sleeves on his shirt and pushed his bangs out of his face, only to put them back when he realized how it must look to Sofia. Sofia untied her hair and put it up higher in a bun. Their eyes burned with the heat of the magma.

"Do you know where else to go?" Sofia asked and Cedric looked around and eventually his gaze caught another ledge about ten feet away and four feet higher than they were. He tentatively touched the wall and retracted his hand quickly at the burn, feeling dumb for even doubting it would be hot.

"Do you trust me?" He asked suddenly and reached for her hand. She instantly had her hands in his and he couldn't help but smile. "Close your eyes."...

Sofia felt a strange sensation. Her whole body felt like jelly and she wanted to vomit. If Cedric wasn't there to grab her, she was positive she would've fallen in the magma pit. When she opened her eyes, she saw they were on the higher ledge and she looked at Cedric confused.

"Teleportation spell. Doesn't work very well for long distances, but it's pretty accurate." Sofia giggled.

"Like the one you used for Sacha, or should I say Miss Nettle?" Cedric blushed a dark red and glared at her.

"Thank you for bringing up those painful memories. But yes, exactly like that."

"Oh I'm so happy, Cedric. That means you improved your aim!" She teased and he sighed dramatically.

"It was ten years ago, Sofia. Obviously, my aim has improved. Shall we go?" He motioned towards the archway that led to another path.

The path was short and Cedric felt a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He came to a complete stop and looked around. It was like a big circular room with another archway that led out on the other side. It was eerie how much it didn't look like a cave, but a high ceiling room. There was a slight gap at random parts of where the ground met the walls, just enough so the light from the magma could illuminate the room.

"We're here." Cedric said, heart now pounding.

"What's here?" Sofia asked quietly and Cedric looked around nervously.

"I don't know. But..." He stared at the doorframe and sure enough, a figure sauntered out. It was hard to get the complete details of his face, but they could make out a bit. He was tall and lean, it looked like he had some form of cape with a high risen collar. His arms were crossed so they could see that he wore dark colored gloves adorned with belts to keep them tightened to his arms. The boots he wore were leather, with a metal base. His pants were also black as was his shirt. He had a small yellow bow tie that they could make out just slightly from under his cape.

His hair was a bit passed his shoulders, it blended in with his goatee that was black and streaked with gray. His hair was pushed back, parted slightly off to the right side, a light gray that blended in with his black hair.

"Cedric..." Sofia trembled and Cedric took a step back away from the figure.

He stood with an air of importance and a level of evil Cedric had never sensed. His chuckle was deep and spine chilling. Sofia had goosebumps, but couldn't take her eyes off of him. Despite being evil, he was beautiful.

"Cedric... is that...?" She couldn't finish the question, it was so absurd. How could it be? The man gave her a devilish grin.

"Yes Princess Sofia." The man answered for her, taking another step closer. She saw his large nose and his brown eyes, but what was the most surprising feature on him was the sparkling pink amulet that dangled from around his neck. On Sofia's side, Cedric frantically shook his head. "It's me, Cedric."

* * *

! Oh shit! Who saw this coming?

I'm so excited to explain WHY this happened in the next chapter so look out for it!

Leave a review and show me some love, let me know what you think about the villain choice ;)


	13. The King's Castle

I've got to say, although I'm happy with the reviews I got I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of reviews last chapter. I was really excited about that chapter to get barely any feedback.

Anyway, this chapter was kind of difficult to write because I still don't know much about future-Cedric and how his feelings towards Sofia should be. I just don't know what type of evil he should be. Like the type of evil he was in the canoe or what. I don't know.

* * *

 **Chapter thirteen:**

There was a long stretch of silence as they all glanced at each other. Sofia took a step away from present-Cedric and stared questioningly at the future-Cedric. Future-Cedric eyed them both with a wicked smile and present-Cedric stared wide-eyed at his future self.

"I-I have so many questions. But I think I'll stick with _how_?" Cedric stammered and future Cedric crossed his arms again and took a few strides closer to his past self.

"Just know that in the future..." He waved his hand slightly and a golden crown appeared on his head. " _you_ are king." Cedric furrowed his brow and sent another look to Sofia.

"Sofia, I can promise you, this is not my goal-"

"Oh shut up." King Cedric sneered. "I cringe at the thought that I was once as weak as you are. Doing _good_. Do you know where that leads you?" King Cedric stared at Cedric menacingly in the eyes. "The same damn end spot." He turned to Sofia. "You're awfully quiet, Princess."

Cedric saw Sofia's eyes widen with hurt and confusion. She took another minute to glance at both Cedrics.

"Come follow me." King Cedric snapped his fingers impatiently and walked out of the room and Cedric continued to look at Sofia. She seemed so lost. She wasn't sure if she could trust _her_ Cedric right now. Or ever, if that's what he becomes.

"Come on, Sofia. We have to finish this mission." He said softly and Sofia nodded slowly. Cedric offered his hand and she looked at it and slowly reached her hand out to grab it. The relief that flooded Cedric's body was unparalleled and he led Sofia out of the room at her pace.

Walking out through the arch, Cedric was instantly surprised. The path was narrow and completely downhill, but led up to a palace he wasn't even sure could logically fit underground. Sofia eyed the dark castle with unease, wondering how he managed to construct it but with his display of wandless magic, she was sure for him it was an easy feat.

King Cedric was already most of the way to the castle and Cedric was walking slowly, making sure Sofia didn't slip. Most of the path was made of loose gravel.

When they got to the castle, the doors were opened already and King Cedric stood in the middle of the foyer staring up. The castle was beautifully structured from obsidian rocks and Sofia could tell it impressed Cedric. He was looking around trying to take in the scenery of the castle. King Cedric turned to face them and scowled at their current appearance.

"Before we talk, you two need to _bathe_." He led them down a hall and when he opened the door at the end, they were met with a room of hot springs. If Sofia weren't so terrified, she would be ecstatic. It was rare she could take a bath that was constantly warm. "The temperature is at a steady 84.3 degrees Fahrenheit. I'll be back in an hour to collect you. New clothes will be brought to you by my" he smirked "slaves." He gave Sofia a look with mild glee.

Sofia looked around and saw there was nothing blocking the two of them from bathing in the same location and her face turned bright red. King Cedric rolled his eyes.

"Trust me, Princess, it's nothing I won't see eventually." He walked out of the room and Cedric looked mortified.

"S-sofia, I... I'll just conjure up a wall!" He pulled out his wand and Sofia shook her head at him and tugged off her shirt and pants. Cedric was dizzy he was so flustered and Sofia ignored his shocked expression and pulled off her remaining clothes and sunk into the hot springs, moaning at the warm relaxing feeling of them.

"Come on, Cedric. Apparently you see me naked eventually." It took Cedric a while to get the courage to undress in front of Sofia, but eventually he did and rushed into the hot springs to hide his modesty. He'd never been naked in front of someone before. "What do you think happens to you?" Sofia asked softly, sitting on a rock structure that made a rather comfortable chair.

"What do you mean?" He asked and sat across from her and rubbed his face with the water. He considered himself lucky the steam made it hard to see much of each other's bodies.

"Why you're evil." Sofia looked sad. "And why I let that happen."

"Sofia! You didn't let it happen. I'm sure there's... a valid reason. Maybe it isn't even me!" Cedric tried but Sofia's solemn face made him sigh.

"Your clothes..." Sofia's head snapped up at the familiar sounding voice.

"Amber?!" Sofia jumped out of the water, uncaring she was indecent and hugged her sister tightly.

Amber looked different. Her hair was cut short, but long enough to pull back in a ponytail. Her clothes were clean, but they were anything but royal. A gray dress, white apron.

"Sofia?" Amber's voice was full of emotion, more emotion than Sofia had ever seen in her green eyes. "Oh my goodness, Sofia." She hugged Sofia back hard and let a sob escape her lips. She held her sister until she opened her eyes and saw Cedric in the water and yelped, clearly startled. She got down to one knee. "Sire, I didn't see you there, I apologize."

Sofia and Cedric looked at each other in slight amazement and Cedric shook his head.

"What are you doing, Princess Amber?" He asked and she glanced up at him, noticing the lack of facial hair and the all around younger appearance. She let her weight fall to the floor in relief and covered her face. Sofia knelt down next to her and rubbed her back.

"Amber, what is going on?" Amber shook her head. "Please, how did this all happen?"

"I-I can't, Sofia. The King will know." She looked directly into Cedric's eyes.

"Please, Princess Amber. What is going on?" Amber scowled.

"I'm no princess. Not anymore." Sofia climbed back into the water, feeling cold out of it but stayed close enough to Amber to provide comfort.

"To me you're still Princess Amber. What is going on? Why am I so crazy?" Cedric was getting hysterical and Amber frowned and looked at the door. When it didn't look like it was breaking down she nodded slowly.

"Okay, I'll tell you... You two have always been close so it wasn't much of a shock when on your 18th birthday, Cedric proposes to you and everything is well and good. I don't know exactly what happened, the words aren't exactly there. Sofia never shared much with me on magic, all I know is you said you two had to take a potion or something because we got into a war with a neighboring kingdom. You two were so strong but..." Amber looked to the side, wondering if she should tell them. She was torn but eventually she looked back at Sofia. "You die."

Cedric felt like he was punched in the gut and he looked at Sofia, his beautiful Sofia. She didn't look sad, just lost.

"That's not even the worst part..." Amber sighs, a tear running down her face. "You were about 6 months pregnant." Cedric's heart stopped for a minute and he covered his mouth. Sofia's face was still impassive. "King Cedric couldn't handle the loss... He locked himself away for a while and when we saw him again, he was completely crazy. He had your amulet, it was weird though- the stone was black for a while. He used to talk to James and Daddy just fine and then suddenly he didn't. There was so much black magic it's like we couldn't even breathe. And just like that... we were slaves." Amber looked down. "James got the worst of it though..."

Amber didn't need to continue. Sofia covered her mouth and tears ran down her face. She looked at Cedric desperately and he understood. He was the wraith they killed in Soul Cave. The wraith _he_ killed... There was nothing he could do to show how sorry he was, he was the one to cause all the pain. He should feel ecstatic that he managed to take over the kingdom, something that he'd been dreaming of doing for years. Now, the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth and he couldn't fathom a life without Sofia after he'd just gotten her.

Amber winced and clasped her neck, Sofia just noticed that she wore a black choker with a very simple, modest, pendant. It was glowing a bright red and Cedric leaned in closer to her.

"Is that—"

"The King needs me. I'll see you soon, Sofia." Amber gave one last parting glance to her sister and quickly ran out of the room.

Sofia walked over to where she sat before, slowly. Her eyes were staring at the water but she wasn't really looking. She was in a daze, she couldn't understand how she just found out Cedric, the love of her life felt the same way only to have him essentially ripped away from her all in the same day.

She washed herself quickly after that and climbed out of the springs to dry off. Cedric stayed in place, purposefully not looking behind him so Sofia could get dressed in private.

Cedric didn't know what to think. Sofia and him get married? They're expecting a child? Everything was just too much. It was everything he hoped for; but why did it have to end like a nightmare? How could he turn so evil? What was the trigger? Of course Sofia and his unborn child dying would be sad, but he didn't think he'd lose sight of reality so easily after that. He couldn't see himself doing that.

Sofia was dressed and ready so Cedric quickly dressed himself and both of them headed to the foyer again to try and find King Cedric. Everything was so surreal neither of them could come up with anything to say. They felt like they were just going with the motions.

"Ah, there you are." Their heads snapped up and Cedric gave an impish grin. "I was starting to think things got naughty." Sofia's face burned and Cedric stared at his future self shocked. Never would he ever think of saying something so forward!

"Why are we here?" Sofia asked boldly, her eyes were like ice. King Cedric smirked and took a step closer to her.

"I love when you get all fired up." He purred and Cedric glared at him.

"Don't talk to her like that." He snapped and King Cedric turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"You shouldn't even be talking to me." He snapped. "It's your fault she dies to begin with." Cedric's eyes widened and he looked at Sofia.

"Can you tell me how?" Sofia asked, staring him down, refusing to show any kind of discomfort.

"Of course I will. Follow me." He led them upstairs to a large room adorned with little decorations and a large table in the center. Sofia sat down, Cedric sat right next to her and King Cedric sat opposing them.

"Okay." Sofia prompted and King Cedric smirked.

"You know, princess, it's been... Merlin's Mushrooms, about 6 years since you've died in my time." He noticed the lack of a response and rolled his eyes. "I take it Amber told you that you die already. Pity." Sofia frowned.

"Can you stop and just tell us what happened?" Cedric snapped and King Cedric chuckled.

"So impatient... well yeah, still am. Fine I suppose I'll have to start at the beginning...

"Sofia and I got married 8 years ago when she was 19. It took a disgustingly long time for Amber to plan the wedding, why Sofia let her do it, I don't even know. During that time we spoke with _father_ about the effects of the potion Protector of the heart or whatever it was called. Apparently, it's a potion that if touched, the recipient will be completely immune to several types of curses, mainly sleeping curses that affect the heart. That's when we talked to him about the potion we tried to make, Weakness of the heart. It's a strong binding potion to link powers together-"

"Yes yes I know." Cedric said impatiently. "It lets you become all powerful and bonds you to the person. It's also a derivative of love magic, which means it only works unless you love each other. Can we move on?"

"So like me, Cedric. At least, past me. Future me is more collected with his thoughts because I like learning. And I'm explaining this potion because you _don't_ know everything about it. I know things about the potion that even father didn't. Did you know it's not only love magic but also dark magic? It makes it one of the most complex binding potions out there. When you're with your partner that you're bound to, it's almost like a high. The love is stronger. But if one dies... the positive energy from the potion is imbalanced. Not only do you need two people in love for this potion to work, but you need people with darker and lighter tendencies. This is why mother and father were able to use it so well. They're polar opposites. And the potion stabilizes the dark and light energy. However, even if the darker person dies, it still reacts the same way. The magic is thrown out of whack and that's when the dark magic comes into play. Magic comes with a price, and even with the immense love and power received from this potion, it comes with a lot of anger and darkness. There is a way to stop it though. To make sure if either one dies, you don't get thrown into darkness."

King Cedric stopped there and for once he didn't look cocky as he normally did. He looked stoic but Sofia could see in his eyes it was a nostalgic sadness. He was remembering something. There was a light that flashed in Cedric's eyes and his mouth dropped slightly as he stared at King Cedric, everything falling into place. Sofia noticed the reaction and became confused.

"What happened?"

"Sofia, love magic is a very pure type of magic and there's a few things that it reacts to. True love's kiss is one of the most powerful forms of love magic but there's one far greater." Cedric's heart hurt even thinking about it. "Having a child with someone you love is considered the greatest and most powerful forms of love magic because the child was created with true love. And that child will often... become very... powerful..." Cedric's brow furrowed and he looked at King Cedric confused but also like something lit up inside of him.

"I see you've finally figured it out." King Cedric chuckled. "Took me far longer."

"Longer to what?"

"My parents used the same potion so they were true love. I was born by an act of true love. Just so you're aware, Cedric, there's a reason father treats us the way he does. He's scared." King Cedric gave him a dry laugh at that and Cedric seemed to be in disbelief. "Yeah. I learned that shortly after Sofia died." Cedric didn't like the nonchalant way King Cedric spoke of Sofia's death.

"I knew you were powerful." Sofia said with a glimmer of happiness and smiled at Cedric. Cedric melted under her praise and stared at the beautiful princess, wanting to forget everything that was happening. "But what was the point of the true love baby?"

"The baby died, Sofia. When you died. So it was never born therefore the true love magic was broken and that's why everything turned out the way it did. The only way to use this potion and not risk either of us turning evil is to surpass the dark magic with love magic."

"How do I die?" Sofia asked and King Cedric smirked. He wondered how long it would take for her to ask that finally.

"I'm not telling you." She grew indignant.

"Why not?"

"It wouldn't matter. You don't need to know."

"Why won't it matter?" Cedric eyed King Cedric with a frown trying to figure out his end game. He couldn't see this evil entity coming back in time for no reason. And if it was to prevent Sofia from dying, he's pretty sure King Cedric would've provided dates and times.

"Despite the setbacks, this is the most powerful I've ever been. I've tapped into my greatest powers and I've even gotten to take powers from the amulet that got me here for this date. I've chosen it because this is when our love was the strongest; it's when we both realized we loved each other. I made sure to rip it the potion you meant to make in a way that you read the one behind it and made that one instead to make sure that neither of you would fall under the Winter's Heart curse. I stole the ring to get you two to come here and be alone to let those feelings fester. I created just the right amount of danger for you two to face to realize the importance of one another. Neither of you were in any danger at any point. I was controlling everything. Now, can you take a guess as to why I would do all of this?"

To anyone else, it would seem like King Cedric only had their best interests at heart. But with a hurt look on his face, Cedric nodded.

"You want us to take the potion now and kill Sofia so you get the power earlier." King Cedric grinned showing all of his teeth and Sofia's jaw dropped.

* * *

This is the first time I'll say this about this story, I honestly don't know when I'm going to update next. Like I said, this chapter was really difficult to write and I have no inspiration right now.


	14. Backstory

This chapter took forever to write too. I have no idea what I'm doing. Save me pls.

A special thank you to everyone who reviewed! Together we'll get this story done.

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen:**

"W-What? Why would you do that?" Sofia stammered out, looking around nervously, as if he were going to kill her now.

"Very simply, my dear. Because I love _power_ more than I love _you_." Cedric jumped up and slammed his fist on the table.

"That is completely untrue! Take that back!" Sofia had rarely seen Cedric that angry but his eyes flashed red for a moment.

"I'm not saying it's true _to you_. I'm saying it's true _to me_. But you need to calm down, Sofia. It's not as if I could kill you now. Even after I give you the potion, I wouldn't be able to be at my most powerful for several months. Once I know that my body is able to absorb your powers in death, I will gladly kill you. Until then, you're safe." King Cedric gave her a tight smile.

"What if I refuse to take the potion?" Sofia asked defiantly and King Cedric chuckled.

"Well, Sofia. You have to take it anyway. I'm not the only threat this kingdom has to offer and with the _entire_ kingdom asleep, I'd say you had better be willing. You take the potion, and I lift the curse." Sofia was distressed at the ultimatum but Cedric knew she made up her mind.

"And if I refuse?" Cedric tried and King Cedric frowned at him.

"Do you know what happens to a person who takes this potion alone?" Cedric shook his head slowly. "I expect you don't want to find out. Won't be very pleasant for the princess."

"Why are you like this?! Why am I like this?!" Cedric cried. He couldn't stand it anymore. How could he change so much? He knew the potion messed with people but there is _no way in hell_ he would be so willing to kill Sofia for power! He knew it!

"I want you to remember something. I loved Sofia. I loved her wholly, she was my world. I remember loving her with everything I had and doing everything in my power to protect her and my unborn child. But she died anyway. Just because I remember I loved her doesn't mean I still feel the love I had for her. It's almost like I have someone else's memories but no emotional attachment to them. I have no goodness left in me, and I can honestly say, thank bloody hell for that. The potion will be ready soon." King Cedric rose and left the room.

For a while, Sofia and Cedric sat in silence. Neither knew what to say. What could they say? Sofia felt trapped. After working so hard to ensure she had a good life, she realized that she wouldn't get one. She'd always made sure she was kind and loved all. Her amulet kept her in check when she was younger, but now it was just common decency. It was eye opening to realize that no matter the good deeds she'd done her entire life, she was going to die regardless.

"Sofia..." Cedric said softly. When Sofia turned to look at him he looked pained. She could tell he was arguing with himself.

"Yes Cedric?" He finally looked at her, he seemed mortified but he looked her in the eyes. It was quite worrisome. "What is it?"

"I... may have a plan for... all of this..." He bit his lip and Sofia smiled softly at him. Despite seeing him in the future as a crazy power driven dictator, the current Cedric was still the love of her life. And her true love if the potion actually worked on them.

"What is it?" Cedric scratched the back of his neck, he was blushing terribly. "Cedric, come on you can tell me."

"Well... He said he needed you alive for several months and... the only way to make sure I don't turn... into him is with true love..."

"Cedric, come on. Spit it out."

"Let's have a baby." He blurred out and quickly covered his face. "Neptune's nettles... I-I'm sorry. It's a stupid idea, you're so young. Please ignore that I don't know what I was think—"

"You're right." It was terrifying to think about, but Cedric was absolutely right. What other way out of this did they have?

But how would she explain this to her family? Would she be able to see them after he lifted the curse or would King Cedric keep them there? What would happen if he found out she was pregnant? Would he kill them? Could he kill his own child?

"I-I am?" Sofia blinked herself out of her thoughts and looked back at Cedric, who still looked completely flustered at his plan. She nodded slowly.

"Listen, I know I told you I loved you. And more than anything I want to marry you and have a life with you and eventually I'm sure I would've wanted kids. I'm going to be 18 in a few weeks. We can get married then. If the plan doesn't work out then at least I can die with you by my side." Cedric teared up and hugged Sofia tightly in his arms.

"I don't know how I could ever do anything to deserve you, Sofia. I-I promised I would be a better man for you and apparently I can't even do that right..." Cedric's heart ached. He wondered how he managed to let this happen.

"Cedric, all it means is that you were human and the potion did what it was intended to do. There's nothing more to it than that. I can tell you love me now and that's enough for me. I'm sure we'll figure out something... I hope."

King Cedric summoned for them nearly an hour later. Sofia was ecstatic she got to see her sister again but there was a question burning in her mind that she wasn't actually sure she wanted to know the answer to.

 _Where were her parents_?

Amber didn't bring them up any of the times they were together so she could only assume the worst happened. As sad as it made her, it was probably best that they weren't around to see any of this happen. She was sure it would break their hearts that they couldn't do anything to protect her from it. What did they think of Cedric? Did they think he never loved her? That thought alone upset her. She didn't want anyone to assume Cedric never cared for her. In fact, how would they take the potion successfully of they didn't love one another?

When they arrived in the King's lab, Cedric was in awe. Everything was top of the line grade. There were cauldrons of several different varieties of metal, which is something he'd always wanted, he was rather unnerved that even as evil as he becomes, there's still some similarities shining through.

"Took long enough, did you?" King Cedric said offhandedly as he hunched over a cauldron. He was carefully portioning out the potion and Sofia noticed the ripped page he was reading from. That was the page from Cedric's book back in the Enchancian castle.

"Honestly not in much of a rush." Cedric spat and King Cedric smirked at him.

A part of Sofia was really angry that no matter what King Cedric said or did, she still found him unbelievably attractive. She knew he was bad, but he had that air of confidence that she always wished Cedric would have. And she never knew how she would feel if Cedric grew out his facial hair, and she had to admit, she liked it a lot. Plus his hair looked gorgeous shoulder length, pushed back and tucked behind his ears. She wondered if he had more muscle, he looked like he did but he wore so many layers it could be that too.

"Here." He handed them both the potion filled up to 43.7mL. Cedric and Sofia grabbed the vials slowly and Cedric begged her with his eyes not to take it but she didn't even look at him. She shot it back like bad medicine and handed King Cedric the vial back. He looked particularly gleeful. His eyes looked to Cedric whom was still looking at Sofia. "Go on."

With a sigh, Cedric took the potion feeling like he sold Sofia out more than himself. He didn't think he could forgive himself for that. After they took it they stared at each other for a while waiting to see if anything would happen. King Cedric stared at them both as they waited with a perked eyebrow.

Sofia was the first to feel the effects of it when her body felt like it was freezing from the inside and burning on the outside. She didn't know how to react to the feeling and when she looked, she saw she was emanating blue electricity as Cedric did when he was angry. It was then that she knew it wasn't just static or electricity, it was his mana. When he was angry, he essentially oozed power and she found that fascinating.

She wasn't only radiating his mana, but her own as well. She saw slight sparks of red come off of her at random intervals completely inconsistent with the blue ones. She looked to Cedric and he was staring at his fingertips watching the red sparks flicker on his hands.

"Congratulations, you are officially bound. You may now kiss the bride." King Cedric disappeared in a puff of green smoke.

"I guess we are kind of married now, huh?" Cedric gave a weak smile and Sofia nodded. "Sorry you're stuck with me."

"Stop it, Cedric. There's no one else I'd rather be with. Although I could do without your evil future self. He's good looking but he doesn't have the personality of yours I like so much." Cedric looked torn between jealousy and smugness.

"You think I'm good looking in the future?"

"I think you're good looking now." The matter of fact tone caused Cedric to blush. "I'm just really liking the facial hair."

"I will make a note of it." Cedric chuckled and led her out of the room where Amber was waiting. Her face was white and she looked crushed.

"What's wrong-"

"Why did you do it, Sofia?" She asked, voice cracking. "Why if you know the outcome would you take that wretched potion? You know it's going to damn all of us, including you!" Sofia hugged her sister tightly.

"No Amber. We kind of have a plan." Cedric blushed again, now getting light headed with all of the blood that's been rushing in and out of his face.

"What is it?" Amber asked softly.

"Amber, were Cedric and I good together? When I was alive?" Sofia asked and Amber looked up at Cedric.

It was strange to look at him this way again. He had a baby face, his eyes were a light brown color, not the red she'd grown used to. She noticed Cedric's eyes would flare red when he was angry but King Cedric was _always_ angry. It took her a minute to really remember what they were like together. She'd been under King Cedric's rule for 6 years and she was honestly forgetting. Seeing past Cedric here felt weird. Like she had a chance to do something about the evil dictator he becomes but she felt trapped.

"Honestly, I can't say much because all the good memories of him seemed to be replaced... But the few things I can remember, you two really did love each other. And he did a lot for you and you did a lot for him. When you sacrificed yourself for him..." Amber shook her head and Cedric's eyes widened.

"Why on earth would she sacrifice herself for me if she were pregnant?" Cedric hissed and Sofia felt an odd sense of shame. Even though she hadn't done it yet, she couldn't see herself sacrificing her child, even if it were for Cedric.

"She had to." Amber said simply. "It was terrible and sad and I miss her so much but if she didn't, we would've lost the war."

"What do you mean we would've lost if I died?"

"It's hard to explain when I shouldn't even tell you what happens, I don't want anything bad to happen... But essentially, Cedric, you're the key to us winning the war."

"But I don't understand why she would've done that if she knew I would've turned evil if she died."

"I don't know!" Amber snapped. "I wasn't a part of the planning or the war! I was just a princess, I didn't know how to do shit! I was stuck in a castle while my little sister ran around _pregnant_ with her husband fighting an _army_!" Sofia's eyes widened at the outburst and Amber broke down in tears. She hugged Sofia tightly and cried on her shoulder. Sofia hugged her back and looked at Cedric.

"Amber I'm not going to let that happen again. I promise." Sofia said softly and Amber pulled away and sniffled.

"Well then, what is your plan? How are you going to beat the King?" Amber asked, wiping her face of tears.

"Well..." Sofia glanced at Cedric and both of them shared a blush. "We're going to have a baby."

* * *

Okay so lots of baby making smut or...?


	15. The Mirror

So remember all those chapters where I said "this was super hard to write blah blah" well let me tell you...

 **I wrote smut in this chapter and jesus fuck was it difficult to write.**

I kept like zoning out trying to think of words. I haven't written smut since like naam so... yeah there is **SMUT IN THIS CHAPTER**

* * *

 **Chapter fifteen:**

Amber said nothing of their plan. She just looked sad and nodded. There wasn't much she could do but she really hoped it wouldn't end the same. And who knows what the King would do if he found out they were trying to have a baby. Of course, Amber was thrilled of the thought of having a baby around, she knew she wouldn't be around for it.

Amber brought them through the castle and showed them where things were with minimal words. She didn't want to be around them right now, it was too painful. Thinking back on it she could remember when Sofia and Cedric got engaged and told her parents. They were very accepting and she'd never seen Cedric smile before. He looked so happy, and Sofia was right there next to them. Amber remembered all the shy glances and the tender kisses they shared when they thought no one was looking. She'd always wanted to find a love like that. How strange to think about. What would she tell her 9 year old self when Sofia first met Cedric. "Watch out for those two, they eventually get married." What would her 9 year old self think?

It was amazing in a way, that she was able to watch everything develop. She was there the entire time, watching them fall in love over the years. Watched Cedric become more comfortable around the family, even becoming family himself. Watching them get married, and try to start a family. Watching Sofia get stronger and stronger with powers she never thought her younger sister would wield. Watching Cedric grow into himself to be the best royal sorcerer the neighboring kingdoms and all of Enchancia had ever seen.

However, she also saw the downfall of everything too. She watched through a crystal ball how Sofia was killed right in front of Cedric. She watched Cedric cradle the dead body and cry and saw his body radiate blue and red. She saw how he destroyed the rest of the entire army by himself _without even watching it happen_. He just knelt down, holding Sofia and this substantial energy destroying everything in his path. She saw him regress everything he was and become this desolate person, not really saying anything. Until one day he snapped.

When Cedric had finally come out from the home him and Sofia had built together, they thought he was going to be okay. They welcomed him into the castle with open arms. He was still so quiet and in his despair, he hadn't shaved. There was an ominous feeling with him near, Amber didn't trust him. It wasn't until his eyes completely turned red and Sofia's amulet around his neck turned black that they realized something happened to the Cedric they'd known.

It was a vicious day. She'd never seen someone so angry before. It was like someone was possessing him. Winnifred and Goodwyn came over quickly before he killed her father and tried to cast spells on him to get him to calm down. It didn't work. They managed to get everyone in the castle to a safe place. When King Roland asked what happened Winnifred and Goodwyn finally fessed up to the potion they took. And it wasn't Cedric anymore. All the good in Cedric died with Sofia. That day they should have mourned the loss of three people, not two.

* * *

"This is where you'll be staying. The king will send someone to get you when it is time to eat." Amber said stoically and Sofia frowned.

"You aren't going to stay with us for a while?" She asked and Amber sighed.

"I missed that about you. Your optimism. No, Sofia. I can't stay. If I don't get back to my chores... I just can't, ok?" Amber looked haunted and quickly left.

"I don't think I could apologize enough to her." Cedric whispered, mainly to himself.

"Come on..." Sofia led him into the bedroom.

There were bigger rooms in the castle. This certainly was a very modest sized room with not much furniture in it, but what could they expect? Sofia walked further into the room and Cedric closed the door behind him and looked around. There was a bed on one wall, smaller than most beds but enough for two people, and oddly enough a vanity table. Cedric walked over to the vanity and inspected the mirror. He pulled out his wand and cast a spell on it to see if it was enchanted. It was.

"Why am I such a creep?" He asked himself in the mirror and took the enchantments off. He even took the mirror off and threw it in the closet that was off the room.

"What was that about?" Sofia asked and he shook his head.

"Apparently I enchanted the mirror. It would've acted like a window for whomever had the other half. I don't exactly want that in my room. I'm going to see if there' anything else I should remove..." Cedric opened the top drawer on the vanity table and started to shake. He slowly reached in and wrapped his fingers around the metal base of the mirror.

"Cedric, is that...?" Sofia walked closer to him and gazed in the handheld mirror. Cedric stroked it softly.

"Yes. This is the mirror I made you for your 17th birthday." Sofia lit up.

"But this one is from the _future_. This means it's seen our memories from then! Maybe we can look through it and get some more answers." Cedric was impressed with her thinking and stared hard into the mirror, willing the memories to flash on the surface.

It was a lot harder to think of memories when he hadn't had them yet but that didn't stop him from trying. He even got a headache trying to think of a memory for the mirror to show him. In the end, Sofia took the mirror in her hands and the glass instantly started swirling with magic, loading the memory.

"Why did I sacrifice myself?" Sofia asked the mirror and the magic inside kept swirling around until it landed on a memory. Sofia watched in mild awe at their older counterparts on the mirror. It wasn't like they were completely different, it was the way they positioned themselves. It wasn't shy. They were comfortable with each other and even if the memory was a fight, Sofia felt an odd sense of comfort that they were able to get to that level.

* * *

"No no and no. Sofia. Absolutely not. No way in hell are you fighting the war! What is even wrong with you for suggesting that?!" Cedric yelled and Sofia's face was red with anger. Her stomach wasn't as big as you'd think at 6 month's pregnant, but it was easily deductible she was with child.

"Don't you dare Cedric! In case you were wondering, you don't _own me_." Sofia hissed and Cedric ran his fingers through his hair with a growl, a slight pulse of blue static rolling off his body and frizzing up his hair.

"That is not the _point, princess_." Sofia twirled around, facing Cedric almost completely in his space.

"Call me princess again and I'm throwing you out of this room." She threatened, eyes steely. Cedric pursed his lips and crossed his arms.

"Then stop acting like one." He spat and Sofia's nostrils flared with irritation.

"This is my battle too! Cedric, you know that you're the key to winning this. If I'm not out there helping you, who will keep you safe?"

"Um, I'm not sure. Maybe the _guards_?" Sofia scowled at his sarcastic tone.

"God forbid I worry that my husband and father of my child is going to die and then all I'm stuck doing is sitting in this castle! Why won't you let me care about you? Why do you always have to be a martyr? Just let me be your wife. Let me be by your side. Let me _love you_ , Cedric!" Sofia said exasperatedly and Cedric frowned and his hair flattened, no longer being pushed up from the static.

"Sofia..." He uncrossed his arms and just looked defeated. "Odin's icicles, Sofia. I literally don't know what I would do without you. Please, I really don't know what would happen to me if you died. That would kill me and then there won't be a kingdom to protect!"

"Cedric, we've known for over a year, the prophecy states that you end the war. If you die, who knows what will happen?" Cedric sighed and walked to Sofia, taking her hands in his.

"Sofia, I don't know what the potion will do to me if something happens to you."

"Nothing." Sofia said simply and Cedric tilted his head to the side. "Well, let me rephrase that. An act of true love can break the half of the spell that's a curse, right?"

"I really don't like where this is going." Cedric mumbled and Sofia smiled sadly.

"I'm not saying it's going to happen, just if it does, and if I die protecting you, that's an act of true love. You would be fine." Cedric shook his head.

"No Sofia. I'm not going to even entertain the thought." Sofia frowned.

"Cedric, we're the only ones strong enough to make this fight! You can't sit me in the corner on the off chance I die." Cedric grabbed Sofia by her shoulders tightly.

"Off chance?! Sofia! I don't think you understand. If you die, I _will die_. It doesn't matter about the prophecy. It doesn't matter about the damn potion spell, whatever the bloody hell it is. I will _die_ if anything happens to you. Please don't let that happen. Please. I love you so much." Cedric covered his mouth, trying to calm himself down and stop himself from crying.

"If I'm not out there, you will die, Cedric. You know that. It's part of the—"

"—goddamn prophecy! I know! I've heard it a million times, that doesn't make it any better! Please, can we pause this fight? I really need to hold you right now..." Cedric enveloped Sofia in a hug before she could answer and Sofia wrapped her arms around him tightly.

* * *

"There's a prophecy? Sofia asked aloud, placing down the mirror.

"Yes, and I see your stubbornness didn't falter as you grew older." Cedric said dryly and Sofia gave him the side eye and walked over to the bed and sat on it, deep in thought. "Are you okay?"

"If Amber is right and I did give my life for yours, and if I'm right and the act of true love can destroy the curse part of the spell, how did you still turn evil?" She asked and Cedric shrugged and sat next to her on the bed.

"Prophecies have a tendency of being something you don't expect them to be. A lot of the time they get read wrong. That's why you shouldn't listen to a prophecy because you base your decisions off of something that essentially guides you to make those decisions. They are pretty self-fufilling." Sofia watched Cedric get frustrated with the future and frowned. Was she worth all the heartache they were going through?

"Cedric. I just wanted you to know that we are going through a lot of stuff right now and a lot of decisions we didn't think we'd need to make, but I love you." Cedric smiled softly to himself, letting the warmth take over where he once felt annoyance.

"Thank you, Sofia. I'm sorry I got us into this mess. It's literally my fault. Merlin's Mushrooms I don't know how I got you to begin with. All my life I've been second-rate, except right now. Right now, with you by my side..." Cedric smiled at her and she smiled warmly and let her shoulder press against his.

"You were never second rate to me." She said after a moment. "You were always the most ah-mazing sorcerer."

"You think so?" He grinned at her and she happily nodded. They both smiled at each other, Cedric let his eyes wonder to her cheeks. They were so rosy pink. "You're beautiful." He didn't realize he was leaning in until he was so close to her face that her lips were just in reach. He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips and she willingly reciprocated. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer to her.

He gently guided her to lay down on the bed and kissed along her jawline. His lips made their way back to hers and she playfully nibbled on his bottom lip. She gave it a small suck and let go, kissing him again and opened her eyes to look at his face. His cheeks were darkened and he had a look in his eyes she hadn't seen before. She leaned in and kissed his neck. He shivered and kissed the outer shell of her ear, eliciting tiny gasps from her.

Cedric straddled Sofia's hips without moving his mouth from her jaw. Sofia let her hands rub up and down his back and he sighed softly at the comfort of the movement. He bit down harder than he intended to on the base of her neck and she bucked her body against his, brushing against his rapidly hardening erection. He let out a whimper and ceased biting to collect himself. He was oddly still. Sofia felt him get harder the more she kissed him and gave a timid but purposeful graze against his erection with her hand.

"You're a saucy minx, aren't you?" He growled in her ear in a breathy voice that gave her a tingling feeling in the most inappropriate places.

"I guess you just do that to me." She whispered against his ear and bit his earlobe. He bit his lip and instinctively bucked his hips. He was wound up so tight he didn't know how he'd survive. Sofia's hands moved down and cupped his clothed cock in her hand and rubbed it with more force than her light brushing. She watched him come undone above her, examining how different movements provoked different responses from him.

Cedric had embarrassingly never been touched that way, and didn't know how long he could hold off. His face and neck were bright red, feeling embarrassed at his body's desperate reaction to her touch. He bucked his hips to feel the friction of Sofia's hand more. His body was on fire and he felt all of his muscles tense up.

She hadn't been touching him for long, but he felt so starved for intimacy that he could feel himself getting close. He made the mistake of pushing back enough to look at Sofia. Gorgeous Sofia, laying underneath him. Her eyes hazy with lust, a look he hadn't seen on her before. Her lips parted slightly and her cheeks a darker color than normal. Her hair was splayed behind her on the pillow and her blue eyes were darker than the bright blue, now looking like an angry ocean during a storm.

Just looking at her sent him over the edge and he came embarrassingly hard. He hunched over her body, head tucked in to her shoulder and he shivered. Several waves of pleasure washed over his body and each one made him tremble. Sofia breathed heavily in his ear and he struggled to move. Eventually he could roll off of being on top of her and laid on her side. She looked at him happily and he quickly covered her mouth in an aggressive kiss. She turned into him and they were laying on their sides. He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her body closer to him. She put her arm on his shoulder to reach into the kiss better. Cedric pushed up her dress, thankful that she didn't have a petticoat on and wondered if his future self predicted this would happen and made it easier access for himself.

He cupped her in his hand, feeling the dampness on the outside of her underwear. He moaned against her mouth and slipped his fingers under her underwear and slid easily into her wetness.

He hadn't really known what he was doing so moved slowly and watched Sofia's face. He rubbed against a nub that made Sofia tense up and moan. He kissed her again and gently rubbed against the same spot. Sofia's body was burning and the more he rubbed on her clit the more she realized how much time they wasted by never doing this before. His movements became more calculated and repetitive based on her gasps. Her fingernails dug into his shoulder and her hips raise off the bed in an urgency her mind couldn't comprehend in that moment.

She knew she was getting close to _something_ but for whatever reason she couldn't get there. She opened her eyes and with a grounding realization, she apprehended what exactly was going on. She was laying in bed with a man, Cedric no less. A crush she had for Merlin knows how long and his hand was in her underwear and he was fingering her. For whatever reason the thought of that finally let her reach an orgasm.

And with a feeling of lethargic happiness, they laid side by side as Sofia rode out the high. Cedric kissed her forehead softly and moved his hand to her side and wondered how on earth he got this lucky.

* * *

Okay so how did I do?

It was hard to write because I just got like the best idea but I can't use it.

Please review and tell me if you wanna see some smut with King Cedric and Sofia (because how perfect would that be, he already knows what she likes. But honestly I don't know how to lead up to that so if it is a yes to that smut, tell me an idea of how it happens.)


	16. Going home

**This chapter is longer because there's more smut. Yay smut.**

* * *

 **Chapter Sixteen:**

"As enjoyable as that was..." Cedric broke the silence and pulled Sofia closer to his body and rested his chin on the top of her head. "I don't believe we could really have a child that way."

"You didn't last long enough to finish inside me." Sofia stated simply and Cedric's face burned.

"Y-yes well I-I-"

"Oh no, Cedric. I wasn't making fun of you or anything." Sofia kissed his neck lightly. "Besides, you're pretty sexy when you're turned on." She giggled and Cedric scoffed, still embarrassed.

"Perhaps I would've lasted longer if you weren't deliberately trying to get me to ruin my trousers." He growled and Sofia giggled again and nuzzled into his neck.

"To be honest I don't know what I'm doing but you seemed to enjoy it and I liked you enjoying it." She quipped and he rolled his eyes and stroked her hair.

"Well, let's not talk about how bloody incompetent I am in bed, shall we?" Sofia frowned at him.

"I didn't say you were bad. Why is this bothering you? I was only teasing." She pulled away from him and tried to look him in the eyes but he was purposefully avoiding her gaze. "Come on, Cedric. Don't be like that. I didn't last very long either. You're really skilled with those fingers..." She grabbed his hand and kissed it. "Have I ever told you how much I loved your hands?" Cedric finally looked at her with a perked eyebrow and a disbelieving stare. "I'm being serious. I used to look at them all the time when you made potions. They're so nice. I always thought you'd make a good pianist."

"I _do_ play piano." He mumbled grumpily and Sofia grinned and kissed his cheek.

"I bet you play beautifully." She whispered and he looked at her in the eyes and frowned.

"I'm still mad at you." He said with no heat to it.

"You're always mad at me Mister Ceedric." She said backhandedly and he pouted at her.

"That was cruel."

"People say that about me."

"Who? Literally no one ever would ever say that about you." Sofia gave him a grin.

"You always did." Cedric rolled his eyes.

"Since when was I the one that people looked to for character witness. I certainly don't become such a good one myself." Sofia cupped his face and kissed him. When she pulled back he looked like he was going to say something so she kissed him again. And again. And again. "Merlin-" a kiss. "s Mushrooms" Another.

"What?" Sofia asked innocently.

"Don't pull that crap with me. I know you're not as sweet as you seem. You're probably a lot worse than you lead me to believe." He all but purred and she colored.

"Wouldn't you love to know?" She teased and he rolled on top of her and gave her a smirk.

"Well my darling, I could always find out." Sofia pulled his head down and kissed him.

"Sofia! Cedric! It's dinner!" Amber called from the other side and Cedric pulled away and scowled. Sofia thought his face was cute. He always thought he was this evil person but he was too cute. She stared at him fondly and he pushed himself up, still straddling her. His arms were crossed and he glared at the door.

"We'll be right out, Amber!" Sofia responded, Cedric groaned, and Sofia laughed and playfully shoved him off her.

"Let's get ready for dinner with you."

"I'd much rather eat you..." Cedric said quietly and Sofia's face turned red.

"What did you say?"

"Oh nothing. You need to get ready for dinner."

* * *

When they were done with dinner, they went back to the room. Sofia was worried at the lack of King Cedric at the table but that was quickly squashed when she realized they didn't have to sit under his gaze. There was something about him that made her nervous and she wasn't ready to face him yet.

Cedric summoned water into the basin they had in the room to wash his face so he could sleep. Sofia stood next to him and stared at her reflection in the water.

"Are you okay?" Cedric asked.

"I'm worried that he didn't lift the curse. What if our families are in danger?" She admitted quietly and Cedric sighed. He would never get used to Sofia being uneasy around his future self. He never wanted Sofia to feel uneasy around him and he was angry that she had a legitimate reason to be. He was concerned about himself too.

"Sofia, if I say I'm going to do something I do it. That's something that won't change."

"I hope your right." That comment just rubbed him the wrong way and he frowned.

Cedric turned away from the basin and walked to the bed, disrobing. Sofia knew he was upset with her words but what else could she say? He didn't know how he acts in the future. Everyone is scared of him so what makes him think that he would continue doing something as good as keeping his word?

Sofia walked to the bed and sat on it above the covers. Cedric was under them but still sitting up. He tried to stare everywhere but Sofia. He didn't want to talk to her even though he knew she had a reason for acting how she was.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, Cedric. I should listen to you when you say you wouldn't do that. I'm just worried. That doesn't mean I don't trust you." Cedric relented and looked at her. Merlin, she was perfect. He tried to hold his ground but she was just so beautiful.

"I'm fine, Sofia. Come here." She smiled softly and jumped off the bed and pulled off her sheath dress and climbed under the covers next to him.

"Wow you're warm." Sofia noted when her skin touched his. It was the most calming feeling she could ever describe. The way his naked flesh touched hers. She snuggled closer to him and he couldn't wipe the smile off his face, hugging her back. "So warm."

"Stop stealing all my heat." He playfully teased and she smiled up at him and snuggled her face back into his neck. She tossed her leg over his hips and wrapped her arms around his torso.

"Make me." She giggled and he sighed loudly. "Or... You could make me warmer?"

"Odin's Icicles, Sofia." Cedric blushed. "You really are a minx, aren't you?"

"That's what I'm here for." She kissed his cheek and yelped when he flipped her over onto her back and situated himself in-between her legs.

"I fully intend on enjoying this longer." He stroked her inner thighs slowly and she shivered.

He leaned in and kissed her roughly and her hands went straight for his head. Her fingers were tangled in his hair and she couldn't stop the urge to press her body against his. She wanted him as close to her as possible. Just thinking about him made her body burn; she was aching for his touch.

His hand firmly grasped the side of her neck and his thumb gently rubbed down the center of her neck. The roughness of it made Sofia moan against his lips.

She didn't know what she wanted. All these sensations were new. She was just following what felt nice and whatever her body did out of desperation. Her legs wrapped around his waist and she pulled him closer to her. She felt his hardening cock against her through her underwear and he broke the kiss and trembled at the friction.

"Cedric..." Sofia said breathily. He looked at her, his pupils blown wide with lust. "I-I don't know what to do but I know I want it and I want it with you." Cedric leaned into her lips and bit her lower lip and rubbed against her. She mewled and he let his nails run down the sides of her body. She squirmed under him and he unwrapped her legs from him and yanked down her undergarments.

He looked down at her and stared longer than he thought was polite but he only had an inkling of what to do. He glanced up at her face, her hair was a mess and her lips were swollen. He wanted to kiss her again.

He ran his hands up her thighs and slowly cupped her with his hand and let a finger slip between the folds and marveled at how wet she was. He let his finger explore her and she writhed underneath his touch. His finger slid deeper inside her and she gasped and bit her lip. He slowly moved in and out of her hole, just watching her react. It was mesmerizing.

"Cedric." She gasped. "Please." She really didn't know exactly what she wanted.

Cedric shuffled out of his underwear and Sofia's eyes examined him. He felt slightly embarrassed to be under her scrutiny, but knew she was just curious. He pushed her legs further apart and moved in closer

"Are you sure, Sofia?" He asked and she nodded quickly. He felt himself throb at her approval. He grabbed his cock and aligned it with her slick hole and pushed himself in slowly. He didn't think he could rush this if he tried. The tightness around the head of his cock almost made him falter. He squeezed the sheets below Sofia and forced himself to look at her. Her eyes were shut and they closed tighter each time he pushed in more.

He wasn't completely sure how he was supposed to last very long when he hadn't even completely gone in once and he was already so close. Sofia bit her lip and slowly wrapped her legs around his waist again, giving him a better angle. He stopped himself with a lot of will power to not push himself all in. He could tell Sofia was uncomfortable. He was kind of uncomfortable too, in a good way. She was so tight it was kind of painful, yet at the same time it was the best thing he'd ever felt.

Sofia surprised him when she tightened her legs around his waist, making him completely sheath himself inside of her. She inhaled sharply and Cedric's eyes widened and he stifled a moan.

"Sofia. Why did you do that?" She opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"You were taking too long." She whispered and pulled him down for a kiss.

Her legs felt so nice around his waist. He moaned into the kiss and struggled to keep himself from finishing right there. She was so warm and tight and _wet_. He was amazed how easily he slid in.

"You can move now." She teased and kissed his nose softly. He whimpered.

"I'm afraid if I move now... I won't last very long." His face burned and she smiled at him. "Don't smile at me, it's embarrassing."

"Oh Cedric, you don't have to be embarrassed around me. And I'm sure you'll learn to last longer the more we do this." The thought of doing this on even a semi-regular bases gave him a tingling feeling all over his body.

He pulled himself out a bit and slowly pushed back inside and dug his fingernails in his palms. Sofia rocked her hips against him despite his protests. He was on the cusp of an orgasm and she didn't seem to mind. A few thrusts later he finished- hard. Sofia rubbed his back soothingly through his orgasm and the after effects of it. She thought it was cute when he trembled from the intensity of it.

"Sofia I—"

"I love you, Cedric." The smile on her face warmed his heart and he couldn't help but smile back.

"I love you too, Sofia."

* * *

Waking up next to Sofia, naked, was one of the seven wonders of the world, Cedric was sure. Even though they'd shuffled away from each other in their sleep, Cedric had never felt warmer.

He rolled to his side and curled up behind her. She grumbled in her sleep and shifted around a bit, unknowingly snuggling closer to Cedric, into his warm body heat.

"Breakfast." A voice on the other side of the door called. Cedric frowned, not wanting to wake up Sofia. He wasn't sure if his future self would be there and they had to talk to him. He knew Sofia wanted to go home and honestly being in this castle made him uncomfortable.

So he did what he really didn't want to do and woke up Sofia.

* * *

Breakfast was an awkward affair. Cedric and Sofia sat in their seats unmoving even to eat anything. King Cedric still wasn't even in the room, they wondered if he would show up. It looked like all of the castle's help was lined up around the room at the walls and none of them made a noise. They didn't talk to each other they just stared straight ahead unblinking. It was unnerving to see and the thought that all these people were terrified of King Cedric just made Cedric feel guilty.

"So glad you waited for me." King Cedric said as he walked into the room. "Sorry I'm late."

"Did you lift the curse?" Sofia asked the second he sat down. He smirked at here and glanced at Cedric.

"I forgot what a fire spirit she was." His eyes raked over her body and she shifted in her seat feeling uncomfortable.

"I asked you a question."

"Yes I lifted the curse." He said simply and Sofia perked up in her chair, apparently not expecting that response.

"Really? Can we go home?" She asked and he stared at her for a while considering it. He leaned back in his chair, seemingly deep in thought. The gaze of his red eyes made them both uneasy. "Please? I just want to see my family."

"I'll think about it." He decided and Sofia sighed, apparently not satisfied with the answer.

"Bring us home." Cedric said with a glare. "Now."

"I'm impressed; I never would have guessed you had a backbone yet. I thought that was only me." King Cedric commented flippantly.

"Come on Sofia. We're leaving." Cedric decided and grabbed her hand and stormed away from the table. King Cedric sat calmly in his chair and sighed.

"Don't forget, I'll be back for you." His hand twisted slightly and Cedric and Sofia found themselves engulfed in green smoke.

* * *

When they woke up, they were laying side by side in the foyer of the castle in Enchancia. Baileywick, Roland, and Miranda were desperately trying to wake up Sofia. When her eyes opened, they cried in relief.

"Sofia! My goodness! Where have you been?" Miranda cried and Roland gave Cedric a weird look.

"You wouldn't really want to know." Sofia admitted with a sigh and stood up.

"What on earth are you wearing?" Roland asked and Sofia looked down. She was still wearing the dark red dress that King Cedric had given her. Sofia and Cedric shared a look and Roland frowned.

"What is going on between you two?" He demanded and Cedric winced.

"Sire-"

"You were under a sleeping curse. All of you." Sofia confessed. "We needed to go find the person who put you under and save you. And we did."

"A _sleeping curse_?!" Miranda gasped and Sofia nodded solemnly.

"What happened?!" Roland was angry and Cedric wasn't sure if he was angry at them for breaking the curse or angry the curse was put in effect.

"Someone stole something from Cedric's mom, something really powerful. And they were able to put the entire kingdom under a sleeping curse. We used a locater spell to find where they were and found them and got the ring back and now everything is okay. We're safe and-"

"How were you two unaffected?" Roland asked and Sofia paused before she answered.

"Dumb luck, if I'm being completely honest. Cedric and I just happened to make a potion that would block the effects of a curse on the heart. I just realized now how... coincidental that was." Roland eyed Cedric and Cedric put his hands up.

"Sofia picked that potion. I had nothing to do with it. I was working on the locator potion." Sofia was annoyed with her father that he would even think Cedric was behind all of it. Well... she supposed he was but that was different. Why did he seem so apprehensive of Cedric?

"He's right, dad. I picked the potion. It honestly was dumb luck. But we really need to talk to Cedric's parents right now about the curse." Sofia looked back at Cedric and nudged him. "Come on. They're sure to know something." Cedric nodded and the two of them left as quickly as they came.

Roland and Miranda stood side by side watching the two leave the castle in a hurry. Roland's face was impassive but Miranda knew something was bothering him.

"You knew it would happen eventually." Miranda said softly and he sighed.

"I know. It's just...Eventually is still too soon. Did you see the way he looked at her?"

"Like she hung the stars? That's how he always looked at her, Rollie." He shook his head.

"No. There was something familiar about the way he was looking at her. And what's with her calling him Cedric? She never does that." Miranda shook her head at him.

"Apparently we've been under a sleeping curse. Who knows how long they've been together trying to break it. For all we know it could be a year later." Roland shook his head.

"I know she's growing up and I know she wants to be with him. But I don't want her to grow up yet." Miranda smiled at him and held his hand lovingly.

"She has to grow up some time. Might as well be here and support her. And when she gets back we need answers too." Roland couldn't agree more.

* * *

"Mummy?!" Cedric yelled, running inside the house. Winnifred and Goodwyn sat on the couch looking somber. "Mummy? What's wrong?"

"We were under a sleeping curse. Do you think we don't know what that feels like?" Goodwyn asked and sighed. "I don't even know what woke us up."

"I did." Cedric said steadily and Sofia thought about how ironic that statement was.

" _You_ saved the kingdom?"

"Yes. With Sofia. I'm sorry mummy. We didn't get it." He said and Winnifred swatted her hand in defeat.

"Who took it?" She asked after a minute and Cedric's jaw tightened.

"I did." Winnifred's eyes widened and Goodwyn jumped off the couch angrily.

"You stole your mother's ring and put the _entire kingdom_ under a sleeping curse?!" He yelled and Cedric sighed and nodded. "Why the hell did you do that!?"

"Bugger if I know." Cedric said calmly. "To kill Sofia, I suppose."

Goodwyn stopped in his tracks and looked at Sofia and Cedric, confused. That didn't even sound like something Cedric would joke about.

"What are you talking about, boy?" He demanded and Cedric looked at Sofia.

"Apparently I'm evil in the future and came back in time to cause all this to get Sofia and I to take the binding potion earlier, to kill her earlier, to get my powers earlier." Goodwyn's eyes bugged out.

"Y-you traveled through time?! _How_?" Cedric shrugged and let himself fall to the couch tiredly.

"I don't know. I am ridiculously strong. I'm constantly doing wandless magic and a whole castle full of people are terrified of me... Oh and apparently I enslaved Sofia's whole family and turned her brother into a wraith, so there's that."

"Poseidon's pumpkins, Cedric. What have you done?" Cedric was used to getting blamed even when he hadn't done something yet and just shrugged. "Did you... kill your future self?"

"No. In fact he sent us back to see Sofia's family. He'll be back eventually to kill Sofia so..." Sofia was amazed with how little Cedric was showing emotion. He was so defeated. She wondered why he gave up, now of all times.

"Well what do you plan on doing?" Winnifred asked and walked to her son's side.

"Apart from having a baby, I have no idea what to do. That's why we're here. Is there any other way to mediate the spell? A different act of true love?"

Goodwyn and Winnifred stared at each other in thought. Eventually, both shook their heads no.

"I'm sorry, Ceddy-kins. I can't think of anything." Cedric looked at Sofia and held out his arm, beckoning her closer. He needed her near him to ground himself. Everything was surreal and everything was making him anxious. He just wanted her.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to have a baby." He said it so calmly and Sofia saw the panic in his eyes. She wondered for a moment how Cedric would be as a father and didn't want to admit that even briefly she was worried.

* * *

This will be the dry period of them just trying to have a baby and learning more magic and dealing with their parents and their love affair

I got mixed reviews on the king cedric and sofia so I decided to write a one shot and publish it separately. It won't effect this storyline at all though.

Anyone looking forward to something happening?


	17. Topaz

What is this? I finally give y'all some smut and I get like 2 reviews? That's it, you're grounded. No more smut.

Now you have to deal with a flashback chapter. I hope you know what you did.

* * *

 **Chapter Seventeen:**

"Sofia, come with me, dear." Winnifred motioned for her to follow and Sofia gave Cedric a glance and followed his mother into the backyard. Winnifred brought her to the garden and sat down on a bench that overlooked a small pond. "Sit with me, please." When Sofia sat down, she saw Winnifred stare into the distance with a pensive expression. All Sofia could think was _she doesn't want me to have this baby_.

"I understand if you think we're crazy—"

"Oh no, dear. I just have a lot to discuss with you. First things first, you don't know how happy it makes me that you two have finally found each other. I've been watching you two fall in love for years. It's nice to see that time had nudged you both in the right direction." Sofia blushed at that and gave Winnifred a small smile. "Cedric is my baby and he always will be so it's hard for me to contemplate that he would be so evil to kill you. I've always known he's had a dark side, in fact sometimes I'm the one who kindled it." Sofia's eyes widened and Winnifred ignored her. "For years I've tried to set him up with nice girls but he never really paid much attention to it. When he was younger, I assumed he was too embarrassed to be set up by his mummy but as he got older, it was just strange. I knew he was in love, I just didn't know who, it was with and one day he came to me and told me he loved you.

"Sofia, I want to give this to you. I've had it for about 17 years. Cedric got it as a gift and I thought it would be best to give it to you. I don't even know if he remembers it, he got it when he was 16." Winnifred reached into her pocket and pulled out a stone on a gold chain.

"Is this topaz?" Sofia asked and held the gem to her eye level.

"Yes. It's very rare in these parts. There's quite a few potions that this could be good for but I've kept it safe since Cedric got it. I didn't want him to use it."

"Ms. Winnifred, why would you give it to me and not him?" Sofia questioned and Winnifred helped Sofia put it around her neck.

"Something just tells me it belongs to you. Topaz is a very special gem. It's said to bring protection against evil and true love." Sofia stared down at the stone and for whatever reason she felt like it was familiar to her.

"This is a very thoughtful give. Thank you very much." Sofia said gratefully and Winnifred smiled at her again. She didn't know how Cedric managed to get such a wonderful young woman but she was proud nonetheless. She never thought anyone was better than her darling boy. Sofia, however, was good enough for him.

"Thank _you_ Sofia. For all the kindness you've shown my son over the years. You've given him many happy memories that I don't think he would've experienced with anyone but you." Sofia turned around and looked at Cedric through the window. He was annoyed, she could tell that by his posture and the frown. Even so, the love she felt for him made her realize that she was the lucky one.

* * *

"I can't believe you've managed to drag the poor princess into your nonsense this time, Cedric!" Cedric could see this lecture from a mile away. He winced at his mother and Sofia leaving the house because of it.

"Here we go..." Cedric groaned and crossed his arms. "Please tell me, father. I seem to have forgotten what a bloody tosspot I am."

"Don't use that foul language with me, boy." Goodywyn snapped and Cedric scowled at him.

"Then stop telling me things I already know. I know I buggered up. I don't know how, and I don't know how to fix it, but I'm _trying_. For once in my sad life, I am _trying_ and nothing you say will make me regret what came to be for Sofia to be in my life."

"You should regret it! Sofia is a fine girl and you're going to be the death of her!" That was a stab to the heart.

"Don't you think I know that already?! Every time I look at her I'm reminded of what I become. I'm reminded that in the future I love power more than her and I hate that. Sofia is the love of my life, no matter what happens and I'm going to fight until god forbid, _I die_ to make sure that she's safe. I will do anything for her and nothing you say is going to make me feel otherwise."

Sofia and Winnifred walked through the door and Cedric and Goodwyn stood in the center of the living room glaring at one another.

"Come Sofia. Let's go." Cedric demanded and Sofia opened her mouth to argue but when she saw how distressed he was she simply nodded.

"Thank you again, Ms. Winnifred. Goodbye Mr. Goodywn." She quickly left through the portrait that led to Cedric's workshop in her castle.

"You need to do her and yourself a favor and end things with her." Winnifred looked livid and Cedric just shook his head at his father.

"How miserable do I have to be for you to be happy, father?" With that, he left.

When he appeared in his workshop, Sofia was sitting on his desk expectantly. She opened her arms to him and he gratefully took the hug. He remembered when he'd first received a hug from her and always despised them. At least, that's what he told himself. Her hugs had always made him feel warm and right now more than ever.

"Are you ok?" Sofia asked softly.

"I will be." He said after a minute.

He pulled back a bit and stared at her neck. He noticed a stone that wasn't there before and memories flooded back. He jolted away from her, as if burned and she stared at him in confusion.

"Where did you get that?" Sofia looked down and saw the stone.

"Your mother gave it to me. She said she wasn't even sure that you would remember." Cedric kept a steady gaze on it and it made Sofia nervous.

"Did you want it back?" He shook his head but now he was piecing things together in his mind. "Are you ok?" He nodded. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the desk.

"Ostende Sofia's mirror." The mirror Cedric made Sofia for her birthday materialized in front of them. "I haven't thought about that stone in years. I got it for... saving someone. I didn't even realize what I was doing. My father couldn't believe the story, didn't believe it actually. He assumed I stole the stone for some reason since topaz is so rare."

"Can I see?" Sofia asked, sitting up straight, clearly excited. "I knew you could save someone, Cedric. You always said you didn't." Cedric frowned and gripped the mirror and stared at the stone. The mirror swirled with colors until it set on a 16 year old Cedric walking through the forest. He was clearly aggravated and Sofia thought he looked rather adorable in his Hexly Hall uniform. When she looked closer she saw his face was bruised.

* * *

**Flashback**

"Bugger." He growled under his breath. Since before Cedric could remember he'd been bullied in school. Each time he told his father, his father would shrug it off and say that if he were better with magic he could defend himself. That didn't really help him much. He couldn't help it, it was rare he could get a spell right. He was just so anxious all the damn time!

Sometimes though, when he felt so strongly about something he could feel power within him. He couldn't ever get it to the surface but one of his teachers pulled him to the side one day and told him they could feel a power change in him and wanted to know if he could feel it too.

He remembered waking up in the early hours of the morning with a rush of power, it was the very end of winter, around when spring began. He couldn't remember the exact date, but he did remember that feeling. He was surprised even the teachers could feel it. His father had looked at him funny that morning and his mother just smiled at him. It was a weird day.

However, Cedric hadn't felt that power in quite some time. It was like little bursts of blue electricity when it did surface, sometimes no bigger than the width of a strand of hair. It never lasted very long but when he saw it he wondered what it meant. Those few times the power had surfaced he was able to do things that he never realized he could do. But as quickly as those powers surfaced, they disappeared and he'd never been able to prove it to his father.

A desperate scream brought Cedric out of his daydream and his head shot in the direction the scream was coming from. It was a man, that much he could tell. And it was close.

Cedric felt that whir of power stirring beneath his skin and for an instant, he felt invincible. So when he heard the scream again he sprang into action, dodging branches running through the forest, unable to find a trail.

He was spit out behind a log cabin, flames were licking the sides and bursting through the windows. Cedric's blood ran cold and he dashed to the front of the house where he was met by a man in a cloak covered in soot and ash.

"What's going on?" Cedric asked, surprisingly confidently. The man turned to face him and Cedric noticed those powerful blue eyes.

"My daughter! She's stuck in there! She's just a baby and I can't get in!" The poor man was close to tears and Cedric felt his palms sweat. He went to reach for his wand, but changed his mind last minute. He walked to the door and instinctively placed his hand on it. The blue energy inside him gathered to his hand and burst the door down. Cedric stared at the doorway in awe but quickly leveled his thinking and rushed inside before the man could say anything else.

It was like there was a force field around his body. He could feel the flames but they didn't feel like anything more than a ray of sun on a hot day. He heard tiny cries of a baby and broke down another door. His heart skipped a beat seeing the flames start to cover this room too. He dashed to the crib and picked up the tiny girl in his arms and covered her with his school robe. The building structure was weak and the roof was collapsing all around him. It was getting hotter and hotter, Cedric noticed how his blue energy was fading and he got increasingly worried. He shifted the baby girl in his arms and her cheek brushed against his bare arm and he felt a power set ablaze in him again, only now it was purple. He vanished from the room without a second to spare, the building now closing in completely.

Cedric opened his eyes and found himself a few feet in front of the collapsed building and the man crying out for his daughter. He was devastated but before Cedric made himself known, he unwrapped the baby from his robe and looked down at her with a smile.

"Thank you for sharing your powers, little princess." The baby had a thin layer of ash on her body but her sparkling blue eyes looked up at him with glee. He'd never seen a baby so happy to see him. He'd never seen anyone so happy to see him.

It was a weird moment right then. He felt connected with her in a way he hadn't been with anyone and he honestly had to force himself to look up and call out to the man.

"I believe I have something of yours." He whipped around and the look of anguish quickly melted off his face and he wiped the tears away and ran over to Cedric.

"H-how did you-? It doesn't even matter. Thank you so much. I don't know how I could thank you enough." His eyes welled with tears again and Cedric awkwardly gave away the baby, feeling colder than before. The man held the little girl in a way that showed he truly loved her. Cedric felt weird just standing there so nodded his head and went to walk off.

"Wait!" Cedric turned and the man unclipped the necklace that was around the girl's neck. It was a tiny stone of topaz. "Please take this. It's the least I can do."

"No. Why would I take something of yours when your house just burned down?" Cedric asked, clearly confused and the man smiled at him.

"Please. It would mean everything to me if you took it. Who knows, maybe you'll meet my daughter again and you can make sure it finds its way back to her. Please, just take good care of it." Cedric awkwardly outstretched his hand and took the stone into his hand and put it around his neck. The little girl gave him a smile and he smiled back.

"Thank you. I will make sure to keep it safe." The man grinned and shifted his position so the girl was on his hip.

"What's your name, boy?" Cedric straightened up a bit."

"Cedric, sir." He said formally and he turned to face his daughter.

"Cedric, right? Well, Cedric. I'll make sure my daughter grows up knowing what a great sorcerer you are." Cedric perked up with a smile on his face. No one thought he was a great sorcerer.

"What is your daughter's name?" The man looked at the girl with pride.

"Her name is Sofia."

* * *

Well obviously everyone in a 32890 mile radius knew that was coming.

Anyway, So I did a little research to figure out their birthdays and let me know what you think.

Sofia (March 16- Pisces) Cedric (July 1- Cancer) I felt that was best based on their personalities. Plus those signs are compatible. But leave a review and let me know!


	18. Amber

Sorry about the delay. I got a cold and right after that I got the 24 hour stomach bug and couldn't move. I'm getting over it now, so hopefully I can eat soon.

* * *

 **Chapter Eighteen:**

Sofia almost dropped the mirror, but instead shakily put it down on the bench. She needed time to collect herself and slowly turned to Cedric.

"You knew me and my father? Why didn't you tell me?" She asked with tears in her eyes. Cedric, completely misinterpreting her tears quickly sat next to her and hugged her.

"I'm so sorry I didn't realize it was you. I'd long forgotten little Sofia. I only remembered when I saw the charm and even then, I couldn't remember her name. I'm so sorry Sofia I didn't mean to make you upset." Sofia pushed him away and stared at him incredulously.

"I'm not upset with you, Cedric. I'm so thankful for you. You saved my life. And you made sure my necklace got back to me. Thank you for sharing this memory of my father." She hugged him tightly and he smiled softly and hugged her back, relieved.

Cedric glanced at the stone and noticed a tiny twinkle, almost like it was communicating.

* * *

Even though Sofia really didn't want to, she knew she had to retire to her own bedroom. It took a solid 15 minutes of kissing, and promising for Cedric to accept. They hadn't been gone from the castle for very long but the connection she felt with Cedric was so strong it was hard to break away from him.

She loved sitting on his workbench and having him stand in front of her and kiss her. It made her feel wonderfully warm inside. Even so, she knew she had to leave and kissed him farewell.

Sofia almost got to her bedroom door before she was ambushed by Amber. Amber quickly threw her in the bedroom and closed the door, making sure no one heard them.

"Amber? What was that about?" Sofia asked and Amber quickly led her to the bed, sat down, and stared at Sofia expectantly. "What?"

"Well? Aren't you going to tell your favorite sister what happened?" She asked and Sofia raised an eyebrow.

"Amber you're my only sister." Amber rolled her eyes.

"Yes yes. Anyway, what happened? Mom and daddy are freaking out over something you and Cedric did..." There was a twinkle in her eye and Sofia's face burned. "Oh my goodness it is _true_." She gaped and Sofia shook her head.

"What? Amber what are you going on about?" Amber smirked to herself and crossed her arms, feeling victorious.

"I knew the whole time, you know." She bragged and Sofia groaned.

"What were mom and dad saying?" She asked and Amber inspected her nails.

"They were talking about you and Cedric going to his parent's house to talk about magic. But come on, like I don't know what that means." Sofia shook her head. "Anyway, what happened? How did you two finally...? I mean he's gross, don't get me wrong but I always knew you liked him a little bit too much, you know? But on the plus side, he _is_ a Cancer and you _are_ a Pisces and they're compatible."

"Amber. That isn't what they were talking about." Sofia said flatly, not wanting to talk about her magical endeavors with her sister. Suddenly she remembered the future Amber and got somber. "We were talking about a curse."

"A curse?"

"Yes, that's what I just said." Amber rolled her eyes.

"Okay go on. I'm listening." Sofia sighed and tried to word it in a way that Amber would be interested. She couldn't say that she met future Amber. Especially future Amber that was Cedric's slave. How would she even react to that? She would certainly have Cedric's head.

"There was an evil sorcerer who put the entire kingdom under a curse and we had to go get him to break it." Sofia settled with and Amber stared at her blankly. "What?"

"Really, Sofia? I've been your sister for, what? Nine years, and you think that's all it will take to satiate my need for gossip?" No, but that didn't mean she couldn't try.

"Amber, I'm just really tired right now. I had to deal with a lot today. Can we please talk about it in the morning?" Sofia begged and Amber stared her down and sighed.

"Fine..." Sofia was relieved to watch her leave.

Sofia cuddled up in her large, comfortable, _empty and cold_ bed and looked out her window. She wished she could see Cedric's tower from her room. She missed him so much and she hadn't been gone from him for more than 20 minutes!

She huffed and rolled to the side and tried to think of other things that would make her mind calm down.

It was tough to sleep that night.

* * *

Sofia woke up promptly at 8 when Amber strolled into her room with tea and biscuits. Sofia groaned when she felt the weight shift on her bed and looked up at Amber who was smiling.

"Come on! Get up you lazy bum! Your wonderful sister is here with breakfast~!" She giggled and Sofia sighed. She had no idea why she was so exhausted, usually Amber was the one who woke up later. She must've been excited to hear Sofia's story which she honestly wasn't very keen on telling.

"Why don't you talk to me while I wake up." Sofia said groggily as she sat up and took a cup of tea in her hands. She nursed the tea while Amber pondered on what to talk about. Sofia didn't like the twinkle in her sister's eye.

"Let me take a moment to talk about you and... _Cedric_." Amber's pronunciation of Cedric's name seemed to be forced happiness. "Now, I bet you're wondering how I knew about you two-"

"-not really-"

"-well, I'd be happy to tell you!" Sofia sighed. "I knew you liked him since you were 14." Sofia tensed up slightly and eyed her sister suspiciously. "Don't give me that look. It was funny, really." Sofia knew this story was anything _but_ funny and in fact, would hope to every god in existence that Cedric never found out about this story. "It was when Cedric got that apprentice for literally 3 days but you were _so mad_. You tried to act all calm but I'm your sister, I can tell. I was like 'wow, I wonder what has Sofia so mad' and when you and I walked down the hall I saw Cedric and... whatever the hell his apprentices name was-"

"-Margery-"

"-really close talking to him and when I saw you from the corner of my eye I swear you looked like you were about to burst. Then I remembered how much time you were used to spending with him and suddenly, whats-her-face-"

"-Margery-"

"-was there and Cedric didn't talk to you as much. I knew you were jealous. I didn't think much of that but when I saw you _tear up_ and pretty much _stomp_ passed them, I knew."

"Yes. Thank you for that riveting story, Amber." Sofia's face burned with shame. "I'm glad I got to relive it in your shoes." Amber smiled with the corner of her mouth and rolled her eyes. "But if you're done embarrassing me I'd rather us not talk about Cedric and I."

"Oh, you don't want to know what made me realize he liked you?" Sofia paused and slowly looked at Amber who was smirking devilishly. "Too bad, I figured you'd like to hear that story-"

"Just tell it, I know you want to." Sofia sighed and eyed Amber.

"Admit it, you're dying to know." Amber teased and Sofia admitted to herself that her interests were piqued. The fact that someone else could tell he liked her made her very curious indeed.

"Okay okay, what was it?" Amber giggled.

"Well it was actually that same day." Sofia's eyebrows raised to her hairline. "After you stomped off I saw Cedric get all... I don't know... sad? And Margery kept trying to get his attention and he was still looking where you left and then all of a sudden he said she couldn't be his apprentice anymore." Sofia looked shocked; she had no idea that's why Margery left. Cedric kind of brushed off the subject when she mentioned Margery. She just knew the next day he found her in the garden with tea and she was so ridiculously happy and he poked fun at her about being happy over someone like him. She then scolded him for talking about her best friend that way. "I'm not saying he was in love with you then, that would be creepy. It actually still rather is creepy but anyway, I'm not saying he would've eloped with you. I just realized then that he cared about you more than he wanted anyone to notice."

"I... had no idea." Sofia furrowed her brow and looked at her tea watching the steam swirl up. A part of her felt ridiculously bad for it. She didn't want him to do that. Well, she did but didn't. Does that make sense? Who knew?

"Anyway, tell me what happened on this trip! I want to know it all!" Sofia blushed and Amber squinted her eyes at her sister. "And I do mean _it all_." Sofia bit her lip and tried her best to edit the story. She hit the main points:

They made a potion. The potion blocked the effects of the curse. Winnifred lost her ring. The ring was in Malignant Falls. The kingdom was cursed. They set out to save the kingdom. They fought a giant spider made of human remains (that elicited an "ew"). She tried to commit suicide and he saved her. They went through a cave (but she omitted the James part). They solved riddles. They had to pass a Siren-

"Wait you had to go through a _Siren_?" Sofia sighed and nodded.

"Out of all the parts of the story you want me to elaborate on the siren?" Amber's grin was wide.

"Of course. I know what their specialty is. They turn into who you want most. Tell me, dear sister. Who did the siren turn into for you?" Sofia raised an eyebrow.

"If you knew so much about sirens you'd know that they only care about men so she didn't turn into anything for me." Sofia regretted saying that when Amber looked even more excited. "Yes, she turned into me for Cedric." She couldn't help the smile that came to her lips and even Amber looked excited about it.

Sofia didn't tell her about the canoe incident, there was no reason to get her riled up and hate Cedric for something he couldn't control. She said they found the sorcerer but at this point she didn't know how to end the story. What could she say? _Oh it was just Cedric from the future and he had an enslaved you with him and he made me take a potion to kill me and hone his powers. No biggie._? It didn't seem to matter, though. A few seconds later her door was pushed open.

"Sofia!- Hello Princess Amber." His cheeks turned pink and he held onto the doorknob awkwardly not knowing what to do. "I was just- uh..." Merlin's Mushrooms, why didn't he think of a lie before he got to her?

"It's fine. I know when I'm not wanted." Amber rose and gave Sofia a wink. Sofia looked mortified and Amber sauntered out of the room. Cedric slowly walked in, looking at Amber oddly and closed the door behind him.

"What is it, Cedric?" Sofia asked and Cedric pulled a clear potion out from his robe and walked over to Sofia with it. "... what is it, Cedric?" Sofia asked again and Cedric sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I was thinking of when we decided to have a baby. And I want to have a baby with you, Sofia. I really do, more than anything. The thing is, something doesn't... feel right. I need you to..." Cedric looked away from her awkwardly. "I need you to urinate in this potion."

"Why exactly?"

"Please do it and I'll tell you." Sofia sighed and nodded. She had to pee anyway.

When Sofia came back in the room she handed Cedric the potion vial. Instead of clear it turned a yellow color. Cedric looked pained.

"Is everything okay...? What does it mean?"

"Sofia, this potion measures mana in your body along with several other forces to give a rough estimate of what's going through your body. If the color turned red, that means you're expecting a girl because your mana is red. If it turned purple it would mean a boy, because mine is blue. But what is actually mixing with it is green, which is why it's yellow. Green is the base color of potion magic. Some people are able to see this if they have the ability to physically see magic. In this case, the only potion that would be strong enough to see here, would be an infertility potion."

* * *

Since I'm recovering from dying and still updated for y'all maybe I could get some love?


	19. Summoning Cedric

Hello friends! I'm still not feeling too hot and I zoned out like every other sentence but I finally got this chapter out. You're welcome.

FYI- I changed my avatar to what I envision King Cedric to look like in case anyone was wondering.

* * *

 **Chapter Nineteen:**

"I... don't understand." Sofia said quietly and Cedric frowned deeper.

"Well... I suppose my future self would've foreseen our attempt and... he made it so you are unable to conceive. Sofia, we... can't have a child... ever." Sofia felt like she was winded, and clenched her chest.

There was a silence that loomed over them for quite some time. Cedric didn't know how to make it all better. He ruined her life. He wasn't sure how he could fix that. Even if him and Sofia didn't end up together, she still wouldn't be able to have children and it was all his fault.

"Well..." Sofia took a sharp inhalation of air. "I suppose I can't have children if I'm dead, so..." She knew she shouldn't try to make light of the situation but it was the only thing keeping her from crying.

"Sofia, I will not rest until I have found a way to reverse this potion! I promise you!" Sofia looked up at him, hopeful.

"So you think there's a way I can still have children?" She asked and he quickly frowned again.

"Well... not any known ways, no." Sofia bit the inside of her lip and nodded. "I can't even begin to explain how sorry I am-"

"Cedric. Please. Not now. Please leave me alone." Cedric paused, shocked. In all their years of knowing each other, no matter how upset she got, she never told him to leave. He felt too warm in his face, and realized he was extremely close to crying. He blinked quickly trying to bid them away and nodded stiffly.

"Yes, of course. I-I'll see you, Sofia." A part of him expected her to say something else so he paused but she just looked at her bed and hugged her legs. When he gathered she wasn't going to elaborate or stop him, he left the room feeling a storm of emotions in his heart.

"So what happened?" He looked up and saw Amber waiting expectantly at her door. He should've known she was going to spy on them, bloody princess.

"Nothing." He said flatly and she walked over brusquely and he took a step back and looked away, not needing Amber of all people to see he was on the brink of tears.

"Are you about to _cry_?" Merlin's Mushrooms. Now Cedric was extremely upset and extremely embarrassed.

"N-no of _course not_. _Royal Sorcerers_ do _not cry_. That is prep-posterous." Cedric choked his cry back and bit his lip and Amber raised her eyebrow extremely high and crossed her arms. "I must go." He quickly began walking down the hallway and did _not_ expect Princess Amber of all people to follow.

"Tell me what happened!" She cried and he scowled and tried to keep ignoring her. He fought off his tears as best as he could but he kept remembering

 _Sofia can't have children and it's all your fault._

And his lower lip would start quivering again. He had to admit though, a part of him was impressed she followed him this far. They'd gotten to the stairs of his tower and she was still right behind him.

"What? _What_ Princess Amber? What do you want from me?" Cedric was getting rather hysterical but Amber took it in stride. She glanced at him curiously and stepped in front of him and walked up the stairs. He groaned and trudged behind her. He knew there was no getting away from her at this point. No matter how hard he tried.

When they got to the top of the stairs, she opened the door to his workshop, strode right in, sat on his stool, and crossed her arms, examining him. He stood awkwardly in the doorway, closed the door only slightly, walked to the far right corner, and sat on the windowsill. He bit his lip again feeling another wave of anguish. He _ruined her life_ and there was absolutely nothing in any book of magic known about that could reverse the effects of an infertility potion. How would he say any of that to Amber?

"What happened?" Her frank tone was oddly comforting, not wanting to be pussyfooted around.

"There's really nothing to discuss with you, Princess Amber." He said honestly and looked out his window, trying hard to see even the sun's reflection off Sofia's bedroom window.

"Listen, Cedric." Amber said flatly. "I want you to know that this relationship thing is weird, I'm not 100% for it, personally and I don't think you quite deserve her." Cedric sighed dramatically.

"Yes yes, thank you for your words of support. Are you done?" He sneered and she rolled her eyes.

"Hardly. Anyway, just because I have _my_ opinion on things doesn't mean Sofia's is the same. And if she sees something in you then... who am I to judge? So I want to make sure that my sister gets her happily ever after because she's a princess and she deserves it, and if that happily ever after coincides with you, so be it." Cedric was oddly touched at that comment. "I still think you're gross though." And there it goes.

"I don't think you're a ray of sunshine either, princess." Amber smiled at him.

"So, now that we understand each other, would you finally tell me what's going on? Sofia barely scratched the surface if this is how you come out of her room." She gestured him with her hands.

"...What _has_ Sofia told you, Princess Amber?" He narrowed his eyes, momentarily forgetting about the pain from before.

"She told me up to the point in your adventure that the siren turned into her." Cedric blushed a dark red.

"She did, did she?" He grumbled and Amber smiled at him again.

"Relax. It was actually the part of the story I thought was... cute." She decided and he still looked embarrassed. "I want to know what happened next." Cedric quickly recalled the events of the adventure and a pang of guilt hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew why Sofia stopped there...

"Why should I humor you with the details?" He asked, trying to distract her and she groaned.

"Because I'll leave you alone if you do? Come on, just tell me. I'm literally dying." Cedric smirked at her over the top behavior and shifted on his seat on the windowsill. He continued to stare in the direction of Sofia's room, an action not lost on Amber.

"After the siren she gave us a canoe and we had to sail across the lake..." He began and Amber squealed in delight at the fact that she broke him down enough to elaborate the story. "Are you done?" She nodded happily and he sighed. "When we got to the other side..." He frowned at leaving out the canoe part, like he was trying to tell himself he wasn't guilty of it, but he told himself it was only because Amber didn't need to hear about it. "We walked through a path and it led us down the mountain and eventually we were in the base of a volcano. The evil sorcerer was waiting for us down there and he took us."

"What did he look like?" Amber asked excitedly and Cedric's stomach churned.

"Why is that important?"

"I like details. I want to picture him in my mind." This is where things got tricky. Should he let Amber know it was him or should he lie?

* * *

Sofia felt an anger in her body like she never felt before. She felt like she was going to literally burst. Red bursts of energy flickered down her arms and legs. She was sure if she saw her hair in the mirror it would be frizzy like Cedric's did when he was angry.

"King Cedric." She hissed and stood up, still in her nightgown. "You come here right now!" She couldn't hold in her anger anymore. Her _hurt_ anymore. Why would someone that was supposed to love her do this to her? She knew he was evil but she just couldn't contemplate that he would... do that.

Surprisingly the center of her room began swirling with blue magic and in a burst of blue smoke, King Cedric stood.

It was odd to see him out of the volcano. There was more light here and it was almost like she could properly see him. She saw all the imperfections of his face he had developed over the years. Occasional wrinkle, tiny scar or two. Still the same face though, the handsome Cedric she loved. His goatee wasn't very long but long enough that she couldn't see those lips she grew to love. His hair had more silver streaks in it than Cedric did now.

"Yes, Sofia?" Neptune's nettles, even his voice sounded the same. More evil, but still the same teasing-high-pitch-end-of-question voice. She took a minute to stare at him and walked closer examining him more. His eyebrow raised. Those same eyebrows he had now, thin and so expressive. His eyes were different though, they were red. Always red. His clothes were black but he still had his pea-yellow colored tie and her eyes watered at that, like she thought he was holding onto who he was in the past.

She stood in front of him, this Cedric was evil. He enslaved her family and wanted to kill her. But he was still her Cedric. She collapsed in tears and shook her head.

"What on earth are you doing, girl?" He snapped and she rubbed her face, tears wouldn't stop coming. She didn't know where to start. She didn't know whether or not to scream or cry, she just couldn't handle anything. She felt broken.

"Do you know the moment I realized I loved you? The moment that it just made _sense_ why I was acting like a brat around you all the time?" She asked through tears and King Cedric paused.

"Yes." Sofia looked up at him, desperation in her beautiful blue eyes.

"When was it?" He frowned at her.

"You acting like a brat only happened when you were jealous of the women, far and few between, that attempted to get my attention. That wasn't when you realized you loved me. You realized you _liked_ me. There's a difference. Honestly, Sofia you haven't realized how much you love me yet. Unfortunately you won't." Sofia leaned back and pressed herself against the front of her bed.

"Tell me." Her eyes were vacant. She was numb. Being told you wouldn't live long enough to see your love for someone reach its full potential was heartbreaking. "When did I love you the most?"

"I have better things to do—"

"Just tell me." King Cedric pursed his lips and decided to sit on the floor with the princess.

"It's going to sound ridiculous, and I'm not providing a back story so you can forget it. You realized how much you loved me when I helped you pick daises." Sofia looked up at him and realization sunk in.

"Aren't you allergic?" He nodded and she smiled. "And what did you realize that day?"

"That I should've gotten a pet." He said dryly and she wiped her tears away with her arm.

"King-... Cedric." Sofia looked up and stared at the King across from her. "I love you. I love you even after all you've done to me. And even if you do kill me, I'll love you then too. I just thought you should know that. You've hurt me a lot over the years, but..." Her eyes started to water again. "I never thought you'd do something so cruel as give me an infertility potion." King Cedric rose up quickly.

"What are you talking about?" He snapped and strode over to Sofia and yanked her to her feet.

"Cedric made me take a potion and it reacted in a way that told him I was given an infertility potion." King Cedric's eyes darted around like he was sorting through his thoughts.

"Show me." They vanished.

* * *

Before Cedric could decide if he should tell Amber of the problem, it appeared right in front of them. A tear-stained Sofia and a very angry looking King Cedric.

"What the f-"

"Where is it?!" King Cedric snapped, cutting off the very shocked looking Amber. "The potion for Sofia. Where is it?" Cedric detected the urgency in his voice and sprang off the windowsill and handed his future self the neon green colored tube. King Cedric let go of Sofia's arm and inspected it. He opened it and much to Sofia's disgust, he sniffed it.

"What in the 17 seas are you doing?" Cedric asked, horrified and quickly made his way to Sofia's side. Sofia was surprisingly calm for someone who just showed up with his evil self.

"Trying to figure out who gave her the potion."

"I did." Cedric said, apparently not understanding the statement.

"He means who gave me the infertility potion." Now Cedric was even more confused, and slightly relieved and Amber was just all around confused.

"Sofia, what on earth is going on?" She asked loudly and King Cedric looked up and gave her a slight smirk and looked back down at the potion. "And why does that guy look a lot like Cedric?"

"There's too much to explain, but why are you in Cedric's tower to begin with?" Sofia looked at Cedric, expecting an explanation but he was too preoccupied with huddling over one of the cauldrons with his future self trying to figure out what King Cedric was doing.

"I think I deserve to know what's going on with my sister." Amber said confidently, although since the smirk from King Cedric, she was feeling extremely uneasy.

"Alright but don't say I didn't warn you." Sofia sighed and went to explain when a loud noise distracted her. When she turned she saw the cauldron knocked over and King Cedric was seething. His eyes were glowing red.

"What?" Cedric asked impatiently, not caring for the theatrics.

"Amber." He growled and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke.

Cedric and Sofia exchanged a look and Amber was now even more confused than she ever thought possible. Cedric couldn't help the relief in his stomach that he hadn't been the one to hurt Sofia that way but he wondered why future Amber would do that. Sofia, feeling emotionally exhausted, threw herself into Cedric's arms and he soothingly rubbed circles on her back.

"Can someone _please_ tell me _what is going on_?!" Her voice shrill with annoyance.

* * *

Whomp whomp whomp.

I had to write King Cedric back in here because he my bby. Love him.

Anyway, I've given it some thought and this is my new Cedfia story, let me know if you're interested!

Summary: When Cedric's scheming finally has him end up on the winning side, he manages to swipe the amulet and take over the kingdom. But when he wakes up the next morning he's back in his tower and realizes quickly he's forced to live the day over again and again by the amulet. How does he break the curse? How does he not go insane? And how can he handle the betrayed look in Sofia's eyes again?


	20. Lexicon

As this story goes on I get less and less inspired to write it but I'm trying very hard to not let it get abandoned. This chapter is 3 pages longer than most chapters as a sorry for taking so long.

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty:**

"Neptune's Nettles, Sofia. Let's just tell her and get it over with!" Sofia looked at Cedric with a frown and went to object and Cedric looked at Amber. "That is me. From the future. I am the evil sorcerer we went up against. He let us go but-"

"-Cedric-"

"-only because he's going to come back-"

"-Cedric!-"

"-and kill Sofia."

"Cedric!" Cedric looked slightly crazed and he was breathing heavily. He worked himself up so much and the look on Amber's face told him he should've stayed quiet but what was done was done and he couldn't go change that now.

"Wait, why is he killing you in the first place? If he wants to kill you, why hasn't Cedric _done it already_? He's been with you since you were eight." Cedric was rather impressed by Amber's perceptiveness and calmed slightly. Perhaps she wouldn't think he was out to kill Sofia now after all.

"Amber..." Sofia walked in front of Amber and really took in her young appearance. Her naiveté was refreshing and she remembered how future Amber was distressed that she couldn't tell them what happened because she never listened. That really decided it for Sofia. "Cedric and I are bound together by a potion. It's kind of like... being magically married. The potion only works when it's true love, so I have no doubt in my mind that Cedric loves me. The problem with it is..." Sofia pursed her lips a bit, she couldn't really remember the best way to phrase it.

"It's love and dark magic so it's incredibly complex." Cedric started and Sofia stared at him gratefully. "The mixture of the light and dark magic makes it incredibly susceptible to change. The potion works best with a yin and yang pairing, such as Sofia and I. She's the light and I'm the dark. The different magics combine and fit perfectly. But... When one of us dies it disrupts the magic and throws everything off balance. The person who lives loses all goodness in them and succumb to darkness. In the future, Sofia dies in war protecting me and without her... I'm evil." Cedric stared at the ground for a while, deep in thought. He supposed that was right on more levels than he even imagined.

Without Sofia, he was evil. Even before they were bound.

Cedric looked up at Sofia, his goodness. He wondered how any of this could happen. How King Cedric could even go back in time to begin with to do this to them.

"What about an infertility potion?" Amber's face was a stone, she didn't show emotion, she was too busy processing information she didn't think she'd ever need until now.

"Well..." Sofia's face burned. "A way to make it so one of us didn't turn evil would be to feed into the love magic. So an act of true love would stabilize the potion. Maybe it's the amount of goodness in love magic? I'm not sure. Cedric and I thought..." She bit her lip, both of them blushing.

"If you had a baby that would be an act of true love?" Amber supplied, Sofia and Cedric were pleasantly surprised. Sofia shouldn't have thought Amber would be slow.

"Exactly."

"But apparently... _I_ gave you an infertility potion? At least, my future self did. Why would I do that?" Cedric felt shame and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Princess Amber, please." He started. "Know that what we say next does not dictate how the future _will_ end if we can fix it now." Amber gave a curt nod. "I take over the kingdom. I am Enchancia's king. You work for me." Sofia felt that he worded it a lot nicer than it actually was.

"I still don't understand." Amber crossed her arms. "If I... work for you... I clearly know you're insane, why would I sabotage a plan to make it so you never take over the kingdom and I'm still a princess?"

"I wish I knew." Cedric sighed. "You're not mad at me?"

"Oh no, I'm livid." Amber inspected her nails. "In fact I feel like the best way to be done with it would be to kill you now." Sofia gasped.

"Amber, you wouldn't-"

" _Relax_ Sofia. I wouldn't have him killed. I just say that because it would be the easiest way to ensure that whatever happens doesn't. But if I kill him then _you'll_ be evil and I don't want to deal with that either. Just because I'm mad doesn't mean I don't know how to think logically. We're just going to have to think of another way true love can save the day."

"Wait, you want to help us?" Cedric asked, amazed.

"No, Cedric. I very much want to be a slave." She deadpanned and he flushed and looked away.

"What is a good enough act of true love? In the future I saved him and died and that still didn't work." Amber tilted her head to the side.

"That doesn't make sense." Sofia nodded.

"I know. There's apparently a big war going on and Cedric is the key to ending it. We saw the memory on my mirror. So if Cedric dies we can't win the war and even though I was pregnant, I stepped in front of him to save him." Amber gaped at Sofia. "What?"

"You seriously think _I'm_ the thick one? Sofia, if what you say is true, it's literally _you're_ fault he's evil."

"I know, I died-"

"No. It has nothing to do with you dying. You didn't just risk your life, you risked your baby's life too and that's why we're in this mess." Sofia recoiled, she didn't even think of that.

"Well it isn't like it matters now. I can't have any children now." She sat down and stared at the ground. Amber frowned, lost in thought.

* * *

"AMBER!" King Cedric bellowed into the seemingly empty castle. Amber eventually walked around the corner with a defiant scowl on her face. "Is there a particular reason that Sofia cannot bear children?"

"I gave her an infertility potion." She said flatly and King Cedric bared his teeth at her.

" _Why_?"

"What's it to you? She wasn't going to live long enough for the baby to be born anyway." King Cedric growled at her.

"Answer. My. Question."

"Because the thought of my baby sister trying to bear _your_ children disgusts me. She's lucky she's dead and doesn't have to deal with you." King Cedric was seething and stood incredibly close to Amber. "She wanted to have a baby with you to stop you from turning evil. But we both know that wouldn't have worked. That isn't a qualification to break the curse, is it?"

"It doesn't matter if it wouldn't have worked! They thought it did and I would've had my heir! Do _you_ expect to warm my bed?!" Amber blanched.

"No! That's disgusting!" King Cedric was nose-to-nose with her.

"Well if Sofia can't get pregnant and give me an heir, you'll have to do." He spat and her eyes widened in fear.

* * *

"Are you two just speculating with all of this true love stuff helping you or is there actually proof?" Amber asked, bringing Cedric out of his thoughts.

"Well... My parents said-"

"We should really read more about it." Amber cut him off. "Your parents are old. They could have omitted something. Not on purpose, don't look at me like that."

"Amber is right. We should read more into it to see if we're even on the right track." Sofia said softly and Cedric looked at her stand against the wall. She was staring at his workbench like it was hypnotizing her and he quickly made his way to her side.

"Of course, Sofia. Are you okay?" He cupped her cheek and she looked up at him, lost. "I won't rest until we figure out a way to reverse the infertility potion. Please believe that." He begged quietly and she nodded slowly and leaned into his touch.

"I know, Cedric. I'm just... why did this have to happen to us? What did we do?" Cedric wanted to admit that he'd done a lot to deserve the bad karma he was getting, but Sofia? She deserved the world and more. He couldn't understand how someone as pure as her would have to go through this, he didn't think he ever would.

"You didn't do anything, Sofia. But... I'm no good. It's my fault you're in this mess to begin with and I'm sorry. If there was a way I could make this up to you, I hope you know I would. Immediately." Sofia gave Cedric a reassuring smile, even though she still didn't feel any better.

"Thank you." He nodded at her and smiled. He really did have a cute smile...

"Now, if you're done, can we go?" Amber commented from behind them and Cedric pulled away from Sofia, embarrassed.

They heard someone come up the stairs and Cedric groaned.

"Quick, to the portrait before we're stuck explaining things again." Sofia quickly magiked herself through the portal and Cedric brought himself and Amber.

Baileywick pushed the door opened, saw the empty room and tilted his head, confused.

"Huh, I thought I heard them..."

* * *

"Ceddykins! What are you doing here?" Winnifred asked, surprised. She brought Sofia and him in for a hug and pulled away, Cedric was frowning.

"Mother, I don't suppose you have any documentation on that potion we took, do you? We really need to look at it." Winnifred glanced at Amber.

"I'm not certain but I can look. How are you Princess Amber? What brings you here?" Amber had her arms crossed and she was staring at Sofia. She wondered when her and Winnifred had time to get close enough to hug as a greeting.

"Just trying to fix what Cedric messed up." She stated flatly and Cedric winced slightly. "Not you. Yet." He frowned still and Sofia sighed.

"It's just easier if you call him Cedric and the other King Cedric." Sofia explained and Goodwyn scoffed, sifting through spell books.

"Yes, of course. The _only_ time you'd be able to call Cedric a king is then." Cedric growled at his father and went to retort and Sofia stopped him.

"If I happen to become queen he will." She enjoyed the look of shock on Goodwyn's face and the look of adoration on Cedric's. "Can you stop arguing now? We really just need that potion.

"But Sofia." Cedric whined. "I wasn't even fighting with him. He was arguing with me." Sofia gave Cedric a look and he pouted. "At least _I'm_ not the one looking for a _potion_ in a _spell_ book." He grumbled and Goodwyn paused and closed the book, looking at the cover. He gave a grunt and put the book back on the shelf and pulled out another one.

"Shouldn't it be in the love potion book?" Amber asked, pulling out a book that was pink and covered in hearts. " _Love, Actually_?"

"No dearie." Winnifred took the book from her. "These kind of spells aren't really _love_ spells. They're _infatuation_ spells. They give the receiver a form of attachment to the caster that makes it seem like love but it isn't. Very nasty potions. We're looking for the lexicon of dark magic, I'm sure."

"But I thought it was a love potion?"

"It is. But it teeters on the edge of dark magic, which is why there's a terrible cost if it goes sour. Goodwyn, dear, have you found the book yet?" Winnifred turned and Goodwyn had a stack of books up to his hip.

"Not yet, Winnifred. There are a lot of books here. Plus we still have the library. Cedric, why don't you go check there." Cedric glowered at his father and stalked out of the room, Sofia following shortly after him.

"I'm curious." Amber said softly to Winnifred. Winnifred stopped reading and looked up to face Amber. "What are your thoughts of Sofia and Cedric?"

"Well..." Winnifred placed the book on the table to her right. "You must understand, Princess Amber. My darling Ceddykins hasn't grown up with many friends. In fact, he's never... really had a friend before Sofia came around. I'm very grateful Sofia is in our lives and I'm even happier to have her be someone so important to my Cedric. You may find it improper and although I don't blame you, I do hope you see how great they are for each other." Amber nodded and glanced over to where they disappeared to.

If she had to place what she was feeling... It would be jealous.

* * *

"Cedric are you okay? I know being here with your dad..." Sofia trailed off and Cedric turned to face her. He peeked out of the door to see if Amber was following and shut it promptly. He took two long steps to get to Sofia and wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to hip and sealed their lips together.

Sofia made a surprised muffled noise that quickly turned into a quiet moan against his lips. She could kiss him all day...

"Sorry." He rasped against her lips. "I really needed that." Sofia grinned and pulled him back for another kiss.

Kissing Cedric made her feet tickle, her heart skip a beat, her body quiver. Everything felt like it was sped up, she was hyper aware of things going on but it also made things freeze in time. A bunch of things she never expected to feel before especially all at once. One of the best things about kissing Cedric was pulling away and opening her eyes to see his eyes half lidded and looking at her. To realize that she was that close to him and he was so close to her. It was a feeling she never wanted to stop.

"And I needed that." He smiled and hugged her closer.

"It's almost your birthday. What would you like princess?" He asked all of a sudden and she giggled.

"I have you already. That's all I ever wanted." Cedric never knew he could melt by simple words, but anything was possible with Sofia so close.

Cedric went to lean in but Sofia moved out of the way and broke away from his grasp. He pouted at her until he saw her hand move to a book on the shelf they were leaning against. She pulled it off and looked at the cover. It was a leather-bound black book with white script on the front. _The 7 Kingdoms Lexicon of Dark Magic._ Sofia opened it and both of them were hunched over glancing at the spells and potions the book held.

 _Chapter 15:_

 _Notoriously Evil Spells and Potions of Love_

 _The magic that doesn't seem evil-Until it is!_

 _In the 7 Kingdoms, these are the most well-known and unknown love magic potions and spells. They are listed in an order of most deadly to least._

 _..._

 ** _4) Infirmum Autem In Corde Suo_** _(Yin Yang Bonding Potion)_

 _Land of Origin_ _: Friezenburg_

 _Creator_ _: Edmund the Elaborate_

 _Deadly Level_ _: 7.7_

 _How it works_ _: This potion works best with people of different magical standings (Ex. A good and a bad sorcerer) This allows the potion to feed off of the different energies and keep the balance it needs to remain effective._

 _Percentage of Potion_ _: At 57% Dark and 43% Love, this potion is the closest potion to a perfect balance of both dark and love magic. This allows it to provide powers like dark magic but offer relief from curses like love magic._

 _Uses_ _: Using this potion binds two people together, magically. Their powers will be as one and they will be stronger than they could ever be alone. This potion acts as a marriage bond between most Sorcerers and Sorceresses due to the high level of love magic it holds._

 _Side Effects_ _: After consumption of this potion the takers will feel: power rise, a tighter bond, telepathy with bonder, advanced magical abilities (this varies from person to person), virtually endless mana_

 _Reason it's deadly:_ _Taking this potion and having the other half of the bond die will create a horrible power imbalance. In most instances, the one left alive will succumb to dark magic since the dark magic is of a higher percentage._

 _Magic's weakness_ _: Because the dark magic percentage is higher than the love percentage, the potion will act as such until a stabilizer is added to the equation. By boosting the percentage of love in the spell and making it an even 50/50 or a higher percentage of love, this will counteract the dark magic if one perishes._

 _Boosting the love_ _: True love's kiss will not work here (at least until the potion reaches a point of already being more love than dark) It needs to be a physical object that represents love. By using the love reactor potion (see page 394) anything that turns red to the touch will power the potion you need (love enhancing potion-see page 812) once consuming the potion, there should be an even balance of love and dark to make all true love powers work completely._

"So Amber was right." Sofia said softly. "Even if we had a baby it wouldn't have mattered. The magic is too dark."

Cedric took the book from her hands and placed it on the desk and flipped to the pages to find the potions, then cursed at the lexicon for not having the recipe to make them.

"We need to find where these potions are." Sofia moved him over and flipped to the back of the book and scanned it.

"It says they can be found in _Love, Actually_. Do you have this book?" Cedric smiled and grabbed Sofia's hand.

"Yes! That's the book Amber found earlier." He dragged her from the library to the living room and let go of her arm and scanned the bookshelf. Once finding the book he needed he let out a noise of delight and placed it on the coffee table. Amber raised her eyebrow.

"I thought those were infatuation spells?" Cedric ignored her and flipped through the book quite aggressively.

"We found the lexicon and we need to brew two more potions and we should be okay!" Sofia smiled happily and Cedric's eyes lit up and he pointed to the page.

"Right here! Love Reactor potion! ...Hm. It seems that I would have all of these in my stores..." He dog eared the page and flipped through a few more pages and felt such relief to find the next potion. "Love enhancing potion. Okay it looks like once we find whatever object that creates such a strong love reaction, we just need 5 more things..." Cedric scanned the list and slowly frowned and leaned back on the couch and stared dead ahead of him. "Merlin's Mushrooms..."

"What is it?" Sofia sat on his right side and Amber on his left. Amber leaned in and read the ingredients.

"Love object, ground diamond powder, _unicorn blood_ " She said rather disgustedly. "a raven and dove feather, and an obsidian rock from inside a volcano? That's specific. I thought obsidian rocks were from the outside?" Cedric gave Sofia an I told you so look and rubbed his temples.

"I have obsidian rocks in my stores but there's only one place I know that has them _inside_ the volcano." Realization hit Sofia all at once and she sighed.

"We have to go back to King Cedric's castle."

* * *

How many people got the references I threw in? Let's see if you can find them and tell me what they are~!

Review please. I am so low on inspiration. Give me some inspiration!

Oh! And who can guess what the love object is?


	21. Avoiding Roland

This story is getting harder and harder to write. Sorry for the delay. I might start the other story and put this one on the back burner for a bit until I get my inspiration back.

Thank you all of my readers for my reviews on last chapter. They made my day.

Sorry for the wait.

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-one**

The three made their way back through the portrait in the castle and stood somber in Cedric's workshop for a moment.

"I'm going to go get changed. The quicker we do this, the better." Cedric nodded and opened his arms for a hug and Sofia threw herself in his arms and he held her there for what seemed like forever.

Amber watched from the corner of her eyes, feeling the slight twinge of jealousy rise in the pit of her stomach. Once they pulled away, Sofia gave Cedric a reassuring smile and walked to the door, Amber behind her.

"I'm going with you." She said simply and Sofia stared at her wide-eyed.

"Amber, this isn't some easy adventure. If we run into King Cedric again it could be messy. Cedric, do we need to go through Malignant Falls again?" Cedric pondered and swatted his hand.

"I don't know but I'll see if there's something I can do to get us there quicker. Hurry along now, Sofia." Sofia nodded and ran down the stairs, Amber still following.

"Please, Sofia. I want to go." Amber begged and it was getting more and more surreal for Sofia.

"But why, Amber? It's going to be dirty, I don't recommend wearing a dress. There's going to be a lot of moving around. Can you handle a weapon?" Amber pursed her lips and clenched her fists.

"Yes, Sofia." She said tightly. "I can use a sword." That was news to her.

"...Why did you learn to fight with a sword?" Amber huffed and they continued to Sofia's room.

"I wanted to make sure I was able to do something useful during war. I can't always wait around for my prince..." She seemed sad and before Sofia could ask why, she spotted her parents making their way up the stairs. She shoved Amber into a closet and covered her mouth.

"We can't let them see us. We don't have time to explain." Amber nodded quickly and Sofia let go of her hold on Amber.

Once Sofia was sure they weren't around, she poked her head out of the closet and made a mad dash to her bedroom. When they got to the door they quickly bustled inside and closed the door as quietly as they could. Sofia brought Amber to the closet and walked over to the section of her riding gear.

They both got changed in silence and Sofia felt bad, like Amber wasn't feeling okay and she wasn't doing her sisterly duties and finding out what was wrong. So once they were dressed, Sofia sat her older sister down and looked her in the eyes. When did Amber grow up so much? When did she get so mature?

"What's wrong?" Sofia's voice was so soft and compassionate Amber could feel herself weakening enough to actually tell her sister what was bothering her. She was surprised when it didn't come spilling out at once. "Amber? Please. I know something is bothering you."

"Okay!" She said exasperatedly and put her hands on her thighs. "Yes, I'm bothered. I'm bothered because my little sister is running around doing these dangerous missions while I sat here being cursed. I'm bothered because in the future, I'm a slave and there's a slight chance that it's going to end up that way. I'm bothered because when I see you and Cedric... I see something I don't have. No one loves me like that and I'm jealous." Amber took in a deep breath and Sofia smiled at her and hugged her.

"Amber, you couldn't have done anything because you were cursed, that's true. But think of everything you've helped with in the short time you've known. If it weren't for you, Cedric and I wouldn't know what to do, you gave us a helping hand, so thank you." Amber smiled with some pride after that and nodded.

"You're right. I did help." She evened her breathing and stood up straight and primped her clothes. "I will be right back." She walked out of the closet and out of the room. Sofia stared at the ground and wondered how her life became so confusing.

In a puff of green smoke, Cedric stood in front of her with a smile she could only describe as handsome. She was tying her hair up when he pulled out a small vial from his pocket.

"If we use this potion we can be transported to any place we've been physically as long as the sun touches it. We can transport to the other end of Lover's Lake and walk down." Sofia felt so much relief at that and her shoulders were released of tension.

"Thank goodness, I really didn't want to go through Malignant Falls again. I don't think Amber could've handled it." Sofia whispered and Cedric's eyebrow raised.

"So I take it she is coming? That's new." Sofia nodded and picked up her bow and quiver, strapping it to her back. She put on her comfortable boots and grabbed another pair because she was almost positive Amber's shoe of choice wouldn't be conducive to walking around a volcano.

They left the closet and Sofia sat on her bed waiting for Amber. Not wanting to seem inappropriate, Cedric chose to remain standing. He didn't need the hassle of people walking in and thinking poorly of them. Even if they had already slept together.

The thought of sleeping with Sofia made him blush and he bit back a smile. She wasn't looking at him so he only saw the profile of her face and he swore she got more beautiful each time he saw her. He looked at her neckline where her amulet laid against her chest, his eyes almost skipped over her new topaz stone and he couldn't help but feel happy that she had that in her possession again.

Amber snuck into the room with a sword holster strapped to her hip. He should've been surprised that she had a sword but the hilt of it was adorned with gems, and what looked like a tiny crown, so he couldn't be too surprised.

"I'm ready." Sofia handed Amber the brown boots and Amber scowled but kicked off her stylish flats and put the boots on. "I hate these boots." She grumbled and Sofia giggled. "I take it you can get us there since you're here."

"Well obviously. I don't make it a hobby to sit in your sister's bedroom." The look Amber gave him made his face burn and he quickly walked to the door, avoiding eye contact with everyone. He opened the door and yelped, falling back. Sofia and Amber were met with a very stern, but confused, face of King Roland.

"Daddy!" Amber charmed, smiling beautifully.

"Cedric." The King's voice was firm and Cedric winced at it. "What are you doing in Sofia's bedroom?" Cedric sat on the floor stuttering a bunch not really getting words out and Sofia rose from her bed.

"Dad, please. Nothing was going on. Amber is right here." Sofia defended and Cedric's face was possibly redder. Did Sofia realize she insinuated something would've happened had Amber not been present? He looked back at her at the moment the realization set in and she blushed. "That isn't... what I meant..."

"It's inappropriate and he should know better. And what are all of you doing dressed like that? You look like you're going to war." They exchanged looks and Amber and Sofia helped Cedric up from the floor. Sofia just realized Cedric didn't have on his robe, vest or tie. He wore simple black pants, black boots, and his green button up. He had a sash on his hip that probably contained various potions and she noticed a slender pocket that was probably for his wand.

"We're... going on an adventure!" Amber squealed. "I just _had_ to take them with me to bond. You know? Okay! Now that we're all here let's go!" Amber grabbed Cedric and Sofia's wrists and led them out of the room but Roland wouldn't sway easily.

"Amber, you going on an adventure? That doesn't make sense. And Cedric and Sofia have yet to tell me what happened when the kingdom was cursed." Sofia knew that disapproving look but they really didn't have the time. She turned to Cedric and he was still holding the small vial.

"I'm sorry dad. We really can't explain right now." Sofia now led them and they sprinted to the gardens. "How does the potion work?"

"We have to put it on water. Then the water will act like a portal to any other body of water so long as we think hard. We'll have to keep holding onto Amber though. Since she hasn't been to Lover's Lake she'll be transported elsewhere." Cedric explained and Sofia burst through the doors that led to the gardens. She noticed Roland was following them and sprinted to the swan fountain and dumped a hefty amount. Cedric gave Sofia a parting look and stood on the ledge and grabbed Amber's hand. Roland was only a few yards away and Sofia and Amber stood on the fountain ledge and jumped.

By the time King Roland got to the fountain none of them were there and the water swirled with blue and red magic.

* * *

Sofia pulled herself out of the water, coughing terribly. She felt as if the water had been shoved down her windpipe. She felt arms pull her out of the water and when she could open her eyes, Amber and Cedric stood on the edge of the lake, both soaked to the bone. Cedric pulled out his wand and tapped Sofia on the head and she was instantly dried. He repeated for himself and Amber.

"Where is the siren?" Amber asked excitedly and Cedric glanced around the lake and cursed.

"Bullocks." Sofia took a moment to examine the view as well and her heart sped up. There was a large boulder on the left side of the lake.

They were on the wrong side of the lake.

"Cedric, do you think you can get past the siren and... the... boat?" Sofia asked nervously and Cedric looked horrified. They saw movement behind the bolder and a figure glided across the water as if she were skating on it.

"You again." The siren accused, staying in her normal form, covered in seaweed. "Weren't you just here?"

"Yes!" Sofia said desperately. "We meant to transport ourselves to the other side of the lake to not disturb you. We're so sorry."

"Y-yes." Cedric stammered. The siren's eyes narrowed at Amber.

"I do not know you." Amber curtsied, despite not having a dress on.

"Princess Amber." She introduced and the siren was now only standing 4 feet away on the water. Her skin was tinted blue and she had scales along her body. Her eyes were such a bright white color they were nearly glowing, but most of her face was covered by a thick blanket of her dark colored hair. "Pardon me for asking, but I thought sirens had tails?" The siren raised an eyebrow.

"I'm able to transform into your heart's desire. I don't stay in the same form long." She explained easily and Amber nodded, smiling softly.

"So what is your name?" Amber asked, smiling still. The siren seemed slightly confused.

"My name? ... I cannot recall. I've been dead for many moons." She looked at the sky and Amber frowned.

"Dead?" The siren turned around and slowly sunk into the water.

"Just go." She waved her hand and the canoe pulled up from the water. Amber was the only one that climbed in. Sofia and Cedric stood unmoving.

"What are you two doing? Come on! Let's go!" She said impatiently and Cedric had beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Sofia." He turned to her. "Cast a paralysis spell on me. This way I can't move." Amber looked at the two confused, especially when Sofia didn't downright deny doing it. "Please, Sofia."

"What's going on...?" Sofia pulled out her wand and motioned for Cedric to get into the canoe. He did slowly and looked at her with regret on his face. Sofia pointed her wand at him and paralyzed him and climbed in.

"Sofia!" Amber said, scandalized. "What was that for?"

"Precautionary." Sofia said softly and sat in the middle looking at Cedric and the canoe began to move through the waters.

"Precautionary for what?" Amber asked, examining Cedric but she knew the second he closed his eyes, something was different.

When Cedric opened his eyes they rivaled rubies. The grin on his face was unmistakable and Sofia's heart dropped. Despite wanting even weight distribution, she pushed herself back towards Amber's side. Amber stared at Cedric in confusion.

"What's wrong with him?" When she looked around, she noticed they were in the middle of nowhere. "Where did the land go?"

"You really think this is going to hold me, Sofia?" His voice purred and it sent shivers down her spine.

"Cedric. I know you're in there. Please. You got through this once." Sofia begged and Cedric frowned at her.

"That's no way to talk about me like I'm not here. Fini." He said easily and the spell broke like tiny shattered pieces of glass. He sat straight up and brushed his hands on his knees. "He might've wanted a spell that I _couldn't_ break out of but here we are. And there's _two of you_."

"Cedric!" With her shaky shriek, Cedric winced and doubled over.

"He's not going to get rid of me that easily, Princess! And when he gives up..." Cedric chuckled darkly and looked at her through his lashes. "I'll be here." He said in a deep sing-song voice. He doubled over onto the bottom of the canoe and clenched his head. "Wow, Cedric. You've gotten stronger, haven't you? This is probably that consummated _love magic_ you've been dabbling in with the princess." Sofia's face burned red and she really wished Amber wasn't behind her.

"I'm a little hurt, princess. I got those trousers off first and yet _he_ gets to warm your bed?" If Sofia could die of embarrassment, she would right now.

"You slept with Cedric?" Amber whispered in Sofia's ear and Sofia sat there, unmoving. Cedric looked back up, his eyes twinkled and he grabbed Sofia's leg and yanked her so she was under him. "Get off of her!" Amber yelled and stood up. The canoe started to violently shake and it caused her to fall over. Thankfully, she stayed in the canoe.

"Don't worry Amber. You'll get your turn too." He promised and Sofia thrashed against him and suddenly he was looking at her with regretful brown eyes.

"Sofia!" He pushed himself back and helped her sit up. Sofia sat up and curled in on herself, Cedric started to shake. "I-I'm so sorry." Sofia looked at him and closed her eyes.

"I forgive you, Cedric." And just like that they were at the shore.

"What the hell was that about?" Amber asked angrily and Cedric's face paled in shame.

"Nothing Amber. The canoe also makes people act weird and for some reason it only happens with men. Let's just go." She stood up and climbed out of the canoe without a second glance to Cedric. Amber watched Cedric's face melt into desperation. She wondered how deep their bond ran.

* * *

So this might be my last update for a while. I have to find inspiration somewhere for this. There's a lot to this story left though. I don't know if I'm writing the war from the future or not. If I am it'll probably be a sequel.

I've been pretty sad recently so who knows when the next update will be. Thank you for reading. And thank you for reviewing, it makes my sad days better.


	22. A little rabbit

Hey everyone. It's been a while. I'm back. For now.

I've had a pretty shitty few months, I'd love some kind words, if possible.

Thank you and enjoy

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-two**

Sofia began trailing down the path much quicker than Amber and Cedric despite her height disadvantage. Cedric made sure he kept his distance. He heard the awful things he said to her in his mind and wanted to give her a bit of space to clear her head. He wasn't sure why the canoe manipulated him in that way. It was strange, these were thought's he'd never had surface so why would they come out at all? How can you voice thoughts you'd never had?

As much as he hoped he wouldn't run into his future self, he idly wondered if King Cedric would have the answer to the gnawing question.

Amber eyed Cedric and noticed the weird faces he seemed to be making while he was deep in thought. What was he thinking about? What was going on? Why was he acting so strangely in the boat? Why wasn't anyone talking to her or answering questions?!

Amber stayed silent, quietly brewing in a fresh wave of frustration.

Sofia stood in the front, her mind on autopilot. She didn't have a thought in her mind that wasn't _find the rocks_. She couldn't think of anything. The canoe bothered her and all, but it was the truth that each time she forgave Cedric. Still, she wondered how true the thoughts were.

After walking for what seemed like a mile, Cedric used the lengthiness of his legs to gain a lead on Sofia, briskly walking passed her. She noticed his eyes scanning around the cave in wonder and slowed her walking down to watch him. He pulled out his wand and mumbled a spell that illuminated the tip to bathe the dark caves in light.

"Where is it..." He murmured to himself, getting increasingly exasperated. "I could have sworn..."

"Cedric, is everything ok?" Sofia asked softly and he turned to meet her eye, a flittering look of guilt rose to his face, but it was gone in an instant.

"The hole we went down. Was it here?" He pointed to a spot of very solid ground.

"Obviously not." Amber deadpanned and Cedric scowled at her.

"You don't even know what we're in for, do you?"

"Cedric, I don't understand. Are you saying that the hole closed up?" Sofia asked, purposefully ignoring his and Amber's spat.

"Yes, Princess." The second he called her Princess he closed his mouth tight and grimaced. Sofia frowned at the nickname but didn't mention it. "Yes, _Sofia_. That is what I'm saying. King Cedric must've known we were coming here... I mean, how can't he, right?" Cedric scoffed and sat down on the ground.

"Are you giving up?" Amber asked, momentarily shocked.

"Why not? I mean he won, right?" Cedric's voice was full of disdain.

"I never thought my sister would fall in love with a guy who gives up so easily. Not Sofia." Amber said with obvious displeasure.

"What else are we supposed to do?" Cedric was on the verge of hysteria. These last few days have been especially grating.

"I don't know about you but I don't carry around a damn _sword_ because it matches my eyes!... Although I specifically got this one because it _did_. That isn't the point. We came here with the intention of fighting for what we want. And we're going to. So let's fight. Come on. Get off your ass." Sofia stared at her sister in shock and Cedric was even taken back a bit. Especially being cursed at by a princess. And Princess _Amber_ nonetheless.

"Amber is right." Sofia said determinedly. "We came here to get what we want and if that involves a fight, so be it. We're as prepared as we can be. So come on, Cedric. Let's go."

Cedric pursed his lips in thought and rose to his feet seconds later. He dug in his wand pocket and procured his family wand and aimed it at the ground he said used to have the hole.

"Praemium." He said sternly and the entire ground around the rock caved in with an implosion. He walked over once the dust was settled and looked down the hole.

"Is that it?" Amber asked and there was another round of exploding sounds from inside the hole.

Suddenly it was so _warm_ and bright. Cedric looked to his sash of potions and shuffled through them until he found one deep in violet color. He took a sip and passed it to Sofia who followed suit and gave it to Amber who scowled at it but took a sip without asking. She handed it back to Cedric who recorked it and put it back in his sash. It took a moment, but suddenly their insides felt airy and light. When Amber looked down she noticed she was floating.

"W-what is this?" Sofia giggled at the look of distrust in the potion on Amber's face and twirled in the air, weightless.

"A floating potion. The hole in the ground now leads straight down to the lava pit. We need to be able to navigate it so we can get into the caves I blew passed. Now come on. Before it wears off and we drop into a pit of lava." Cedric deadpanned and willed himself to go into the caved in pit in the ground.

"Magma..." Sofia corrected under her breath and Amber made a noise of terror and held onto Sofia's arm and they followed Cedric down.

Floating was an experience Sofia had never got to practice. Cedric always scolded her for trying to test his potions. She always wondered if it was because he didn't trust his potions to be correct. He was always so hard on himself. Now, floating through the caves of the volcano with Cedric and her sister, it was an exhilarating experience. The bubbly feeling of her insides made her hold back a giggle. She supposed she wasn't very good at it when Cedric turned to face her with a smirk on his face.

There was something incredibly sexy about the way he smirked. Sofia blushed at the thought and looked away shyly which only added to Cedric's clear amusement.

The potion wore off not too long after that and they were in a dark cave that was oddly moist for being right above a pit of magma.

"Are we almost there?" Amber asked and Cedric fought his urge to roll his eyes.

"Merlin's mushrooms. We're in a dark cave. I have no idea _where_ we are as of yet." Amber pouted at the dismissal and Sofia pulled out her wand and thought hard of the spell she wanted to cast. Why couldn't she remember the words? Was it...

"Ostende mihi." She whispered and a silver ribbon came sparkling out of the tip of her wand. It rolled to the ground and balled up until it created a form. A sparkling silver rabbit sat on the ground and looked up at her. She was amazed at the resemblance of Clover it had and her heart ached painfully. "Show me." She repeated in English. The rabbit nodded and began hopping down the cave. As he walked, the immediate area was illuminated in a wispy silver light.

Cedric gaped at the creature and then looked at Sofia. Did she not realize how powerful the spell was for her to conjure a _creature_? Surly she knew how amazing she was! Cedric wondered if he cast the spell if it would have a shape or if it would only be a thin silver line directing him. He was amazed at the quick thinking. Cedric had completely forgotten that spell. Where did Sofia even learn it?

"Hurry up, he's getting away!" Sofia cried and took off in a full on sprint passed Cedric to follow the rabbit as it rounded the corner. Amber and Cedric followed shortly after.

The rabbit navigated through what felt like several miles of the caves (probably because they just got so warm towards the end) until he dumped them at the opening. The light was blinding, so much so that Cedric had to squint to see. They were outside again. How did they get outside from being down so far?

Sofia took off in a run again and Cedric groaned, wanting a moment to catch his breath. He followed anyway and Amber continued running without even a slight complaint.

There it was.

Cedric came to a halt. Right where he thought he left it, an entire area of obsidian rocks. He breathed a sigh of relief and Sofia was already gathering a few rocks. Cedric joined her and collected a few extra. It seemed like a good thing to have in his stores.

"What a pity." A masculine voice came from in front of them. Their eyes shot up and Cedric gaped.

"Graylock? What are _you_ doing here?" Now that he could get a good look at him, he looked older.

Oh no.

"You're from his time, aren't you?" Cedric asked with his jaw clenched and Graylock chuckled darkly. His want appearing in his hand in a ball of black magic.

"He told me you'd be back. So good to see you old friend."

"What is it that you want?" Sofia asked fiercely. Cedric was amazed with her brashness. It was completely unlike her to be rude. Even to someone so clearly evil.

"Same thing as the king wants. You see, when you finally die, and Cedric gains all his power, he actually hires _me_ as his Royal Sorcerer. Normally I would've told him to shove it, but... damn, Cedric. I was just impressed by the clear power that rolled off you in waves. It's... it's impressive, really. And with all that power you're able to create so many things. Including a trade of sorts. And I'm in charge of said trade. I like where I'm at, so I'd rather not lose it."

"Trade? What is it you trade?" Cedric asked gruffly and Graylock laughed with obvious glee.

"Oh Cedric, you aren't dark enough for that yet. Just know that the bone marrow from a fetus not yet fully developed is a _very_ powerful ingredient in dark magic." Cedric felt dizzy, he actually stumbled and covered his mouth.

Amber and Sofia stared in horror at Graylock as he smiled at them, like he said something nonchalant.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Amber commented and Sofia covered her mouth too, and tears burned her eyes.

"You're lying." Cedric's voice was a low growl. He sounded repulsed, for that, Sofia was glad. She still couldn't wrap her head around Cedric being that evil in the future. Kill babies for their bone barrow?

"I'm not, but it's cute that you believe you still have humanity in you." Graylock stood in an offensive dueling position and Cedric stood in front of Sofia and Amber and got into a defensive duel position.

"I'll show you how much _humanity_ I have left." Cedric scowled and Graylock shot a spell out so quick, Cedric almost didn't have time to deflect it.

A spark of yellow streaked out from Graylock's wand only to bounce off in front of Cedric from a shield charm. Cedric twirled his wand counterclockwise and aimed it at Graylock's feet. The roots from the nearby trees shot up from the ground and Graylock threw himself backwards to avoid their grasp. From the ground he cast a fire spell which Cedric extinguished with the flick of his wrist.

While Cedric was preoccupied with his fire spell, Graylock hexed Amber, causing her to go rigid. Cedric turned when he heard the gasp from Sofia and Graylock smirked and cast a stunning spell, sending Cedric flying back several feet and then wrapping him up in vines.

Sofia stood with an angry look on her face

"Don't be sad, princess. Cedric has always been so easy to fool." He grinned and Cedric thrashed on the ground trying to get free of the vines. "Don't worry, Cedric. I have no use for killing you or Amber. In fact, I'm sure the King would be upset if I killed his pet. All I have to do is kill _you_ , Sofia." Graylock smiled at her, almost sweetly. Sofia pulled out her wand.

"Praemium!" She shouted and Graylock's eyes widened and he jumped out of the way before the explosion hit him. Sofia was on the offensive, throwing as many jinxes and hexes as she could remember. Graylock was just too skilled for her. She couldn't land a single one on him.

"This is getting old, Princess. It isn't cute anymore. Just let me kill you!" Graylock somersaulted out of the way and pointed his wand at her.

"Ruerunt!" Sofia was hit face on and tumbled to the ground, stuck in a bowing position. Graylock smirked and walked over to her. He let his boot come down on her head and he forced her face into the soil. Sofia tried her hardest to move, but found she could barely even make a sound.

Cedric managed to get his fingers wrapped around his wand just enough, but he could only point his wand at Amber with the way he was positioned.

"Consummavi." He was grateful that Amber's color came back and she leapt to her feet grabbing her sword. She was able to surprise Graylock and in the brief second she had the upper hand, she smashed the side of his head with the hilt of her sword and he fell down. Amber quickly knelt down to Sofia and yanked her to the side so she could breathe again. The spell kept having her move back to face down and Amber was getting increasingly upset and worried.

"Cut me free, Amber! I'll end the spell!" Cedric cried and Amber quickly went to his aid but found the vines were a lot stronger than her blade.

"It's no use!" She wined and ran back to Sofia to push her to the side with all of her might so Sofia could breathe. Every time she let go, Sofia was forced to bow so low, she clogged her breathing passages with dirt. It didn't help that Sofia began to cry at the oxygen depravity. Amber started hyperventilating and crying.

"Sofia, please. Hang in there. I'll help you." She hiccupped and the spell was getting more resistant to her, making it harder to move her face out of the dirt. "Sofia." Amber's voice cracked as she kept pushing upwards as Sofia's body was forced to roll over.

Cedric was slowly going insane, his heart racing damn near out of his chest. He continued to thrash angrily and the vines grew tighter.

Amber was trembling, fighting so hard to keep Sofia's face from the ground. It was mere inches now. She didn't know how much longer she could hold on. She didn't want to watch her sister suffocate right in front of her. She didn't want her sister to die at all!

"Sofia, you have to help me. Sofia, fight it. Fight it, Sofia!" She cried hysterically and Sofia whimpered, tears running down her face. Her nose now touched the dirt and Amber felt the fast beating of her heart.

"Cedric." Sofia sobbed and Cedric knew he couldn't possibly feel worse than he did right now. His beloved Sofia was dying and he couldn't do anything. She was crying out to him and he was stuck in a bloody stunning spell!

"Amber! Grab my wand and end the spell! The counter to most hex is consummavi! Do it Amber!" Amber's eyes were wide with terror and she couldn't decide what to do. She didn't want to walk away from Sofia even a little bit. Cedric was several feet away. What happens if by the time she got to him, Sofia suffocated because she wasn't there to help her breathe?! "Amber!" Cedric yelled so loudly his voice cracked. Sofia's forehead touched the dirt and all that was left was a few centimeters of air away from Sofia's lips from touching the dirt.

Amber stared in some sort of trance. Not knowing what exactly to do. What should she do? Her heart beat wildly in her chest.

"Amber!"


End file.
